Ron DeSantis continues to press his case against Donald Trump, arguing he would be better positioned than the former President in staving off a third-party challenge from Robert Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent.
“This RFK third party I don’t think would be a factor if I’m the nominee. But I think it would be a factor with Trump because I think some of the issues RFK raises like Dr. Anthony Fauci, the COVID lockdowns, all that, I’m very strong on that and I did something about it,” DeSantis said on WGIR’s New Hampshire Today with Chris Ryan.
DeSantis suggested that Trump would “bleed support” due to his approach to coronavirus mitigation.
“Trump is very weak on that. He says he did everything right. He’s the one that empowered Fauci to begin with. He said the mRNA shot saved 100 million lives, which is just preposterous that he would say that. So that would be something where he would bleed support potentially there as well.”
The Governor has discussed Kennedy at various points during this campaign cycle, seemingly embracing him at times.
During an interview in July with Outkick, DeSantis said he’d “sic him on the FDA, if he’d be willing to serve, or sic him on CDC” if elected President.
DeSantis said those comments were misinterpreted as endorsing Kennedy to lead those agencies. The Governor made a clean-up attempt days later, telling Megyn Kelly that he really meant that he wanted to put Kennedy on a “bipartisan task force” to “hold them accountable.”
Kennedy, whose vaccine skepticism predates DeSantis’ pandemic-driven interest, claimed this summer that COVID-19 may have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Jewish and Chinese people. He has since backpedaled, saying he should have been “more careful” with his words.
DeSantis hasn’t addressed those claims, but told Jesse Watters this summer that he aligned with Kennedy in opposition to “censorship” around the coronavirus.
The Governor already ruled out picking Kennedy as a potential running mate, meanwhile, saying that the anti-vaccine candidate was a “liberal Democrat” on most issues.
Ironically, Kennedy is seen as a better bet to win the White House than DeSantis. According to Election Betting Odds, Kennedy has a 4.3% chance of winning, half a point more than the Florida Governor.
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