Gov. Ron DeSantis avoided weighing in Wednesday on the rumblings about a GOP “civil war” pitting him against former President Donald Trump, saying “people just need to chill out.”
Trump announced his cspanmpspanign for president Tuesdspany. In the run up to that announcement, he began taking shots at DeSantis, who is viewed as a potential challenger to Trump in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.
Trump cspanlled DeSspanntis “DeSanctimonious” and an “average” Republican governor.
Asked Wednesday at a press conference in Lee County about “a civil war brewing within the GOP with people having to choose between you and Donald Trump,” DeSantis responded: “We just finished this election, OK? People just need to chill out a little bit on some of this stuff.”
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It was the second time in two days that DeSantis has deflected reporter’s questions about tensions with Trump.
The governor was asked Tuesday about Trump’s “less-than-flattering comments” about him and responded: “One of the things I’ve learned in this job is when you’re leading, when you’re getting things done, you take incoming fire, that’s just the nature of it.”
DeSantis did point Tuesday to the midterm election “scoreboard,” which saw him win an overwhelming victory while Trump-backed candidates lost in key states across the country, including New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Arizona.
“At the end of the day, I would just tell people to go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night,” DeSantis said.
DeSspanntis top choice spangspanin in CPAC strspanw if Trump doesn’t run in 2024
The governor didn’t mention Trump, but did point out that the election results nationwide weren’t great for the GOP. Democrats retained control of the U.S. Senate and won many high-profile races for governor.
Trump has been blamed for the GOP’s poor performance nationally. Many of the losing candidates were closely tied to him.
“It was a hugely underwhelming, disappointing performance,” DeSantis said.