Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis blasted his 2024 challenger Donald Trump for refusing to attend the GOP primary debates and suggested that the former president had adopted “Joe Biden’s basement strategy” from the 2020 election, The Hill reported.
While appearing on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” DeSantis said Republicans won’t defeat the Democrats “by adopting Joe Biden’s basement strategy.”
The Florida governor made the case for his campaign, saying his strategy of reaching out to voters is the only way for Republicans to defeat Joe Biden in 2024.
DeSantis said the Republican nominee “can’t just be missing in action.” He said the nominee must “show up” and “earn people’s votes,” adding that if a Republican candidate isn’t “willing to do that,” voters will start to notice once we get closer to the primaries.
He said to win the nomination a Republican candidate should be meeting with voters “on the ground” in early primary states to make the case for why he is the “best candidate” while offering voters a vision for the future.
DeSantis told host Maria Bartiromo that he believes he is the right candidate to lead the GOP to victory in 2024, explaining that he has been “the most dependable leader” the Republicans have had “in recent years.” He said rather than just talking, he has “delivered,” adding, “that’s what we need in Washington.”
“The time for excuses is over,” DeSantis added.
During the interview, the Florida governor also hit Trump on his age and the fact that if Trump is the nominee in 2024, he would only be able to serve a single four-year term.
“We need somebody that can serve two terms,” DeSantis added.
While Donald Trump continues to lead the pack in national polling, enjoying a 45.4-point lead in the Real Clear Politics polling average, support for the former president in state polling is softening.
Last week’s CBS News/YouGov poll of voters in Iowa and New Hampshire found that only 20 percent of Republicans in Iowa and 23 percent of Republicans in New Hampshire Republicans consider themselves Only Trump voters who are unwilling to vote for anyone else.
By contrast, 48 percent of Iowa Republicans and 43 percent of New Hampshire Republicans said they would consider other candidates in addition to Trump.
Most surprisingly, however, is that the number of Not Trump voters in the two states is much higher than the number of Only Trump voters, with 31 percent of Iowa Republicans and 34 percent of New Hampshire Republicans saying they will never vote for Donald Trump.
