Ron DeSantis is finally speaking out about Donald Trump’s claims he “begged” the then-President for an endorsement in 2018 “with tears coming down from (his) eyes.”
During an interview with Megyn Kelly, the Florida Governor and 2024 presidential candidate seemed to deny Trump’s assertions, made repeatedly since last fall, that DeSantis begged for an endorsement against Adam Putnam and Andrew Gillum in the race for Governor.
“Do you believe that? You tell me,” DeSantis said to Kelly, though he didn’t expressly deny it.
“I mean, come on, this was, you know, in public,” DeSantis continued. “I think we were on Air Force One, and I said, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about running. Will you support me? Will you tweet for me?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ll tweet for you.’ And that was it.”
“He was getting ready to leave the race, and he came over and asked whether or not it would be possible for me to endorse him,” Trump contended in a February interview. “For whatever reason, I did endorse him.”
Trump made similar comments in March at a rally.
“I’m a loyalist. And when a man comes to me (with) tears in his eyes, He’s at almost nothing in the polls, and he’s fighting somebody that’s at 42, and he’s got almost $30 million in the bank. He’s at almost nothing. He’s got no cash. And I said, ‘I can’t give you an endorsement. There’s no way you can win. You’re dead.’”
Despite misgivings, Trump granted the endorsement, as DeSantis fought for him “just a little bit on the impeachment hoax.”
DeSantis said Friday Trump’s objections to DeSantis running are only because he’s a “threat” to the former President’s bid for a second term.
“He doesn’t say that about his own Vice President running against him. He doesn’t say that about his ambassador to the U.N. running against him. He doesn’t say that about other people he endorsed in the past who are now running against him. He only says that about me because I think he construes me as the only threat to his winning the nomination,” the Governor told Kelly.
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