Ron DeSantis is weighing in on the end of Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign, suggesting that the former South Carolina Governor should honor her commitment earlier in the 2024 race and endorse Donald Trump for President
“I signed the pledge and you sign the pledge saying that you’re going to not take your ball and go home. And so I honored the pledge and she’s going to have to make a decision about whether she wants to or not. But the idea that somehow circumstances have changed, I think we all knew what we were doing when we did that and you’ve got to make a judgment about whether that’s meaningful to you,” he said on Newsmax Wednesday night.
DeSantis endorsed Trump immediately after leaving the race in January, but Haley has not followed through on her pledge to back the presumptive nominee.
“I have always been a conservative Republican and always supported the Republican nominee. But on this question, as she did on so many others, Margaret Thatcher provided some good advice when she said, ‘Never just follow the crap. Always make up your own mind,’” she said, as transcribed by ABC News.
“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it, who did not support it,” she added. “And I hope he does that. At its best politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people.”
DeSantis also offered another withering appraisal of the Haley campaign as not appealing to today’s GOP.
“She had waged a campaign on the idea that you can somehow win the Republican nomination for president by getting the votes of mostly just non Republicans. And that just doesn’t work. And we saw that play out in Iowa and I said at the time that she didn’t have a pathway. So I’m glad we’re all through that process,” DeSantis said.
The Governor, who recently told a friendly questioner he wouldn’t un-suspend his 2024 campaign, again said he had no interest in being Trump’s Vice President during the segment Wednesday night with Eric Bolling.
“I believe I could do more for Florida and the country by remaining Governor than by any other position,” DeSantis said, by way of disclaiming his interest.
It’s not exactly clear Trump World would accept DeSantis as a running mate, based on recent post-campaign history.
During a call with former volunteer delegates last month, DeSantis warned against Trump making a diversity pick for VP, saying he’d “heard that they’re looking more in identity politics.”
“I think that’s a mistake. I think you should just focus on who the best person for the job would be and then do that accordingly.”
DeSantis also trashed Trump’s political team, alluding to people like Susie Wiles as people he had “fired” and found refuge in Trump World only to condemn him, saying their “nonsense” didn’t resonate with voters and that reports of Trump animosity to DeSantis may be exaggerated.
This led Chris LaCivita, another senior advisor to Trump, to claim “chicken fingers and pudding cups” would be the legacy of “sad little man” DeSantis.
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