Florida Governor Ron DeSantis criticized former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley this week for not endorsing former President Donald Trump in her speech announcing that she was dropping out of the Republican Party presidential primary.
DeSantis, who was Trump’s top challenger for most of the primary season until he dropped out of the race after a second-place finish in Iowa, made the remarks Wednesday night during a Newsmax interview with Eric Bolling.
“I signed the pledge and you signed the pledge saying that you’re gonna not take your ball and go home,” DeSantis said. “And so I honored the pledge, and she’s gonna 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 got to make a judgment about whether that’s meaningful to you.”
“And so for me, I tell people, you know, if I say I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it,” he added.
DeSantis also weighed in on Haley’s strategy during the race, saying she “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,” he said. “And I said at the time that she didn’t have a pathway. So I’m glad we’re all through that process. And, you know, now we’re in a situation where Republicans are staring down the barrel of a President Biden, who’s clearly not up to the job. … If you compare him to 2020, to now, I mean, the guy has clearly slowed down dramatically, his policies have not worked. So now’s the time for that to be the focus.”
WATCH:
DeSantis tears into Nikki Haley’s strategy of trying to win the Republican nomination by courting non-Republicans, and criticizes her for not honoring her pledge to endorse the eventual nominee. pic.twitter.com/VzxhnTfhuj
— Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) March 7, 2024