Sooner or later, someone was bound to ask Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, on camera, what he thought of former President Donald Trump’s new line of attack against him. Recently taking up the habit of referring to the Florida governor as “Ron DeSanctimonious,” and calling him “average,” Trump opened a new front in the 2024 Republican primary before it even begins.
Days ago, Trump went nuclear on DeSantis, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, as well, by calling them out as basically riding in on his coattails and diminishing their accomplishments. Much of the criticism didn’t sit well with fellow conservatives who saw it as unnecessary to launch friendly-fire attacks on two of the party’s rising stars days after the GOP suffered a weaker-than-expected midterm performance.
When asked about Trump’s criticism specifically, DeSantis responded without mentioning Trump by name while basically creating a mic drop moment:
Gov. DeSantis responds to Trump’s recent statements about him for first time:
"All that's just noise…I would just tell people to go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night."
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 15, 2022
Ouch, that one’s going to sting.
In no way did DeSantis even acknowledge that it was Trump’s attack he was commenting on but rather lumped it in with all the other criticism he’s received during his first term as Governor. In other words, when you’re leading, says DeSantis, you get attacked, a veiled insinuation that Trump is no longer leading the GOP.
DeSantis rests on his accomplishments and winning re-election in the face of an endless onslaught when the entire media complex was calling him “Deathsantis” for his freedom-focused Covid policies. At any point, he could’ve buckled, but he soldiered on and kept fighting.
If anything, DeSantis’ carefully chosen words signal that not only does he not intend to back down from the 2024 primary, but perhaps is willing to already start engaging in it. He could’ve waved off this question and said he was not getting into it or said he was not going to respond. Instead, he engaged and unloaded some words he’s probably been reserving for days now.
The other shot asking people to “check the scoreboard” is a nod to his 20-point victory and several of Trump’s endorsed candidates losing around the country. That line of attack is arguably valid, but DeSantis also campaigned for many of Trump’s candidates as well, such as Kari Lake in Arizona. Not even the combination of Trump and DeSantis supporting Lake was able to gin up a victory.
On balance, though, DeSantis came out a clear winner on election night with what amounts to a clean sweep of Florida offices up and down the ballot. If Trump wants to attack that, fine, have the debate and let primary voters decide. From this response as a preview, the primary might get pretty ugly if the back-and-forth continues. What is clear, however, is that DeSantis has no desire to lash out at Trump, but he’s not afraid to respond when pressed.
