Ron DeSantis is rebuking two 2024 presidential primary opponents for attacks he says are “bizarre,” “ridiculous,” and an attempt to sell a “bill of goods.”
On Monday’s Brian Kilmeade radio show, the Florida Governor offered counterargument to cutting criticisms from Nikki Haley and Donald Trump in recent days.
Former United Nations envoy Haley lit up DeSantis on a CNN Town Hall Sunday for his failure to work constructively with the Walt Disney Company. She accused DeSantis of “hypocrisy” given previous campaign donations from Disney and urged the Florida Governor to “pick up the phone, deal with it, settle it the way you should.”
DeSantis dissented, calling Haley’s attacks “bizarre” and framing them as unfounded in reality.
“I mean, somebody does a campaign contribution and you’re supposed to lay down for them. That’s not how I operate. People can support me or not support me. I call them as I see them and if you’ve supported me, but you’re wrong, I’m going to do what’s right,” DeSantis told Kilmeade.
Haley accused DeSantis of “vendetta stuff,” but DeSantis thinks his fight against Disney is a test of principle that his opponents are failing.
“The days of Republicans just deferring to large corporations, I think, need to be over. Not all these other Republicans are willing to do that,” DeSantis said Monday.
The Governor also clapped back against Trump, who continues to levy criticisms DeSantis hasn’t done a good job as Governor, and was worse than Andrew Cuomo of New York, a Democrat, in handling the COVID-19 pandemic.
“So here’s the issue. He has said how great we’ve done in Florida for years. He said ‘we were one of the great governors, Florida is one of the great states. Florida stayed open. They did it right during COVID,’ all this,” DeSantis contended.
“Now, he’s changed his tune and he’s saying Andrew Cuomo did better with his lockdowns in New York than we did,” DeSantis added. “I can count the number of Republicans on my hand who would have rather lived under Cuomo’s lockdowns than would have rather lived under freedom. So he’s just trying to sell people a bill of goods.”
DeSantis also dismissed Trump’s claims that running against him is “disloyal.”
“And I don’t think anybody actually believes that. Here’s what I think: I owe loyalty to the people that elected me,” DeSantis said.
“They don’t need to be loyal to elected officials. It’s our job to be loyal to them, to their aspirations and to the larger cause, you know, be loyal to your faith and your family and your country, other politicians, you work with them to be able to advance a larger mission, but people need to earn it.”
DeSantis also rejected contentions he should run in a future election and stand down for Trump.
“You know, some people tell me like, ‘Oh, well, you know, you should just wait ’til ’28. Well, that would make sense if you’re running to be somebody, but I’m not running to be somebody. I’m running to do something. And I think 2024 is the country’s hour of need.”
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