Tuesday, during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle,” 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) called on his opponent, former President Donald Trump, to participate in this week’s GOP presidential debate.
DeSantis, who trails Trump by a significant margin in national polling, laid out how he would go at Trump if the opportunity presented itself.
“So Donald Trump standing next to you on that stage, imagine he was, how would you go at him, in order to kind of again, shrink that gap from two to one?” FNC host Laura Ingraham said.
“Well, I think it’s interesting, and he’s not willing to stand on that stage,” DeSantis replied. “I think he owes it to all the voters to show up, defend his record, articulate what he would do. going forward, what do you wouldn’t might do differently and he’s not willing to do that, and I think the voters have a right to hear from all the candidates. Well, he’s not been willing to step up and do it.”
“How would you go at him, Governor?” Ingraham responded.
“Well, he should step up to the plate, and then we’ll do it,” DeSantis replied. “I mean, I think we can talk about a lot of the things. He’s running in 2024 on a lot of the same promises he ran on in 2016 and didn’t deliver on. He said he was going to drain the swamp, they didn’t drain the swamp at all. He still defends hiring Christopher Wray. He didn’t fire Wray. He didn’t fire Fauci. He said Mexico was going to pay for the border wall. That didn’t happen. They started the wall, but we’ve got a lot more to be able to do to finish the wall.”
“He said he was going to eliminate the national debt,” he continued. “They added almost $8 trillion to the debt in four years. And then remember, he promised to appoint a special counsel for Hillary Clinton. Then after the election two weeks later, he’s like, oh, no, forget about it. That’s what you say before the election. Is that what you say after. So now, he’s saying he’s going to do one for Biden, but he had promised to do that for — in 2016.”
“So I think it’s about you’ve got to deliver on these things,” DeSantis added. “If we do the same thing, and we don’t deliver on 100%, we’re not going to turn the country around. Now is the time to deliver results. We’re going to be at Reagan’s library. He said it was a time for choosing, it was our rendezvous with destiny. I think this election is for our generation, because we’re in danger of leaving to our kids and grandkids in America that’s less free, and less prosperous than the one we inherited.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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