Florida Governor Ron DeSantis criticized former President Donald Trump during an interview on Wednesday over the possibility that he may not show up to the first Republican Party primary debate next week in Milwaukee.
DeSantis told Guy Benson on Fox News Radio that he expects to be the person who takes the most shots from other candidates since he is the only candidate other than the former president polling in double digits.
“Clearly, I’m the only guy that Trump’s campaign attacks,” DeSantis said. “And then the other candidates, a lot of them don’t really say much about Donald Trump, and they — they focus more on me.”
The governor said that he looks forward to speaking to tens of millions of Americans who have not yet paid attention to the primaries.
“Ever since we won re-election in Florida by such a historic margin, people have identified me as a threat,” he said. “The Democrats have identified me as a threat. Biden, Harris, they spend more time attacking me than anybody else. The media, they have been after me. I have probably had more hit pieces from the corporate press than any other candidate running.”
“They want to create the narrative that somehow he’s inevitable,” he later added. “But I think the fact that they frantically attack me all the time shows that they don’t actually believe that.”
DeSantis also said that Trump only showed up to the Iowa State Fair over the weekend when the Florida governor was participating in the events there and said that Trump did it “to try to take some of the attention away from us.”
“So, if you already had it in the bag, you would not worry about any other candidate,” he continued. “I have been in races where I had it in the bag. I was not out there attacking people that I was 40 or 50 points ahead of. So, he owes it to people to go up there and debate.”
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DeSantis said that one of the main reasons Trump does not want to debate is because he does not want to have to defend his record in terms of some of the things that he promised to do while campaigning in 2016, but later failed to do.
Never Back Down, the Super PAC supporting DeSantis, released an ad on Wednesday taunting the former president for not yet committing to show up to the debate.
“Donald Trump used to mock Democrats for refusing to debate,” the ad states at the outset as it shows the former president doing so.
The ad then skips to Fox News anchor Bret Baier asking Trump in an interview about him potentially not showing up to the event.
“We can’t afford a nominee who is too weak to debate,” the ad states. “We need a nominee with stamina. A nominee who’s sharp.”
“Republicans deserve a candidate who earns our vote,” it continues. “Not one who demands it. What happened to Donald Trump?”
Republicans need a nominee with stamina. A nominee who's sharp.
We deserve a candidate who earns our vote — not one who demands it. pic.twitter.com/Tf3Cf4RrtX
— Never Back Down (@NvrBackDown24) August 16, 2023