- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday he would fire special counsel Jack Smith on “day one” of his administration
- Smith has charged former President Donald Trump with crimes related to the 2020 election and mishandling of classified documents
- DeSantis, Trump's 2024 rival, echoed the ex-president, saying Smith was “weaponizing the justice system” in an interview on Fox News
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that if elected president, he would fire special counsel Jack Smith on “day one” of his administration.
Smith has charged former President Donald Trump with crimes related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and for hoarding classified documents that he moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago.
Despite being one of Trump's top Republican rivals, DeSantis echoed Trump's complaints in a Fox News interview Thursday that Smith's criminal investigations were political in nature.
“I think a guy like me as the nominee will be able to keep the focus on Biden, keep the focus on the Democrats' failures, but then, most importantly, after you win the election, hold these people accountable.” who have armed themselves with the legal system to go after their political enemies,” DeSantis told former Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Fox.
“And that starts on day one, firing someone like Jack Smith,” the Florida governor continued. “That's about dealing with people who are violating constitutional rights in state and local government.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was arrested Friday while campaigning in Iowa, said Thursday evening on Fox that he would fire special counsel Jack Smith on “day one” if he were elected president.
“Republicans have turned a blind eye to abuses of power for far too long,” DeSantis added.
DeSantis and former UN ambassador. Nikki Haley is currently vying for second place in the 2024 Republican race, with Trump leading nationally by 51.2 points, according to the Polling Average for Real Clear Politics.
Neither DeSantis nor Haley have used Trump's 91 charges against the ex-president to gain political ground.
Of the other Republican candidates, only New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has pointed to the four separate criminal investigations to show that Trump is unfit to run for office again.
Trump made history in April as the first former US president to be charged with a crime.
He has since been charged in three other cases.
In a separate interview, DeSantis expressed exasperation that Republican voters have seemingly rallied around Trump as a result of the prosecutions.
Special Counsel Jack Smith (left) is charged with investigating former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the classified documents case
“If I could change one thing, I would say I wish Trump had not been indicted on any of these things,” DeSantis told the Christian Broadcasting Network in an interview last week.
The Florida governor argued that since “Alvin Bragg on” – referring to Trump's April indictment in the Stormy Daniels hush-money investigation – Trump has had the upper hand over Republican voters.
'I have criticized things. “I don't think someone like Bragg would have brought that case if it had been anyone other than Donald Trump,” DeSantis said. “Someone like that perverts justice, which is bad, but I also think it perverted the primaries,” he said.
The charges, Florida's governor noted, “just crowded out… so many other things.”
“It sucked a lot of oxygen away,” he added.