Ron DeSantis pushed back on claims his campaign is wavering, saying instead that he “corrected course” after discovering what works best for his efforts to become the GOP presidential nominee.
He told Fox News in a Monday night interview that it’s “nonsense” for Republican political operatives to label his campaign a failure when the primary is still seven months away.
In an extensive interview, the runner-up was put to the test on hot topics such as Florida’s Black History curriculum and whether he would continue to support the US financially in the war in Ukraine by supplying a stream of weapons.
Questions of a campaign reset follow reports that several staffers have been fired from DeSantis’ campaign, while also renaming Florida’s governor as a “leaner, meaner insurgent” candidate in the presidential primary.
It also comes amid staggering polls that place DeSantis a distant second behind Donald Trump, who said it would be “the greatest comeback in American history” if Florida’s governor overtakes him.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sat down Monday night for a lengthy interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, where he ranted against those who say his campaign is failing — insisting he was simply “adjusting course.”
“Everything you do has to pay off the investment,” DeSantis explained to Fox host Bret Baier in a lengthy interview taped during a campaign swing in New Hampshire.
“If there’s no value in it, I get changes and then that’s just the reality of what you have to do,” he added. So I’m not a political agent. I am not a campaign professional. You formulate the vision and execute it. And if it is not executed, you just have to race.’
The governor said that because his campaign hires people in-house, they may spend more than other candidates, but he claims he will “eventually make money doing it that way.”
In the past two weeks, DeSantis has received a barrage of criticism of Florida’s new Black History curriculum that stemmed from the banning of the controversial tenets of Critical Race Theory.
Even members of the GOP have criticized DeSantis for the new classes, saying he should have vetoed the effort.
But DeSantis doesn’t believe it, arguing that established Republicans are too weak and too easy to take the “bait” of Democrats trying to divide the party.
The 2024 candidate also said his fellow Republicans should reject the Democrats’ “bait” that tries to get GOP politicians to “bend the knee” to their agenda to divide the party
“Is this worth a fight?” Baier asked DeSantis.
“We didn’t pick the fight, Brett,” the governor assured. “Kamala Harris boarded a plane at taxpayer expense and flew to Florida to lie about the African American history norms being developed.”
‘But why is this important? You can’t bend the knee to the left,” he continued. “If the left is lying and creating these fake stories, you need to push back. They’ve been doing this with Republicans for years and years. Republicans bend the knee, and it’s just one after the other.”
“Harris comes in and parachutes,” he said of the Florida vice president’s speech earlier this month, where she focused on DeSantis and his policies.
“What the Republicans should have done is pushed back against her, say, ‘You are acting in bad faith. Those guys in Florida – they had no agenda. They were just trying to shoot straight.’ We know what the left is doing,” DeSantis said.
“Republicans, you can’t take that bait, you have to fight back against these people.”
DeSantis also took responsibility for any setbacks in his operation as “leader.”
“Is this the start of a campaign you envisioned?” Baier posed.
“Well, look at the end of the day, I’m the leader,” the governor replied. “You declare a commander’s intent, and you delegate people to do it, and then you evaluate. And if it’s not what you want, then you just adjust.’
The veteran naval officer added, “That happens all the time, it happens while governing. And the question is: are you going to be able to identify what produces a bad (result) and change it?’
“So we did,” he assured, “and I think in the end nobody cares what happened in early July — six, seven months before the primary.”
A New York Times/Siena poll released Monday shows DeSantis a distant second to Donald Trump with just 17% support to the former president’s 54% — no other candidate even breaks 5%
DeSantis said all voters really want to know what “substance” is and less about the political game of it all.
The first debate in August, DeSantis says, is a time for candidates to really show Americans what they’re putting on the table. But Trump still says he won’t participate.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday, “Let them debate so I can see who I might consider for Vice President!”
It comes after anonymous members of his staff told news outlets that the former president believes the debate stage with candidates so far behind him in the polls is below him. Trump feels like he’s essentially running again as an incumbent.