Florida Gov Ron DeSantis admitted in an interview with NBC News that former president Donald Trump misplaced the 2020 presidential election, as he seeks to recalibrate his marketing campaign.
Mr DeSantis initially advised NBC News’s Dasha Burns in an interview that can air on NBC Nightly News on Monday night that whoever is inaugurated on 20 January is taken into account the winner, in a dodge reply.
“Whoever puts their hand on the Bible on Jan 20 every four years is the winner,” he stated. When pressed, Mr DeSantis stated that President Biden defeated Mr Trump.
“No, of course he lost,” he stated of Mr Trump. “Joe Biden’s the president.”
But Mr DeSantis nonetheless stated that the election did have irregularities, citing the proliferation of mail-in ballots through the Covid-19 pandemic and Meta chief government Mark Zuckerberg’s distribution of grants to election directors.
“I think what people in the media and elsewhere, they want to act like somehow this was just like the perfect election. … I don’t think it was a good-run election,” he stated. “But I also think Republicans didn’t fight back. You’ve got to fight back when that is happening.”
Last week, Mr DeSantis disputed Mr Trump’s claims of the 2020 presidential election in an interview with The New York Times, particularly disputing claims that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro rigged the election.
“It was not an election that was conducted the way I think that we want to, but that’s different than saying Maduro stole votes or something like that,” he stated. “Those theories, you know, proved to be unsubstantiated.”
In his interview with NBC, Mr DeSantis additionally criticised Mr Trump, saying that he made the error of listening to Dr Anthony Fauci, the previous National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director. He famous how the CARES Act, the Covid-19 aid laws Mr Trump signed, included $400m for election administration.
“But here’s the issue that I think is important for Republican voters to think about: Why did we have all those mail votes? Because of Trump turned the government over to Fauci,” he stated. “They embraced lockdowns. They did the CARES Act, which funded mail-in ballots across the country.”
Mr DeSantis is looking for to reboot his marketing campaign after a disappointing first fundraising quarter whereby he solely raised $20m. His marketing campaign has additionally let go of quite a few staffers. He additionally considerably trails Mr Trump in practically each ballot.
But Mr DeSantis stated that the election wanted to be a referendum on Mr Biden or Republicans threat shedding.
“If the election is a referendum on Joe Biden’s policies and the failures that we’ve seen and we are presenting a positive vision for the future, we will win the presidency and we will have a chance to turn the country around,” he stated. “If, on the other hand, the election is not about Jan. 20, 2025, but Jan. 6, 2021, or what document was left by the toilet at Mar-a-Lago, if it’s a referendum on that, we are going to lose.”