Governor Ron DeSantis took a shot at former President Donald Trump on Sunday, calling the GOP frontrunner a “high-risk” candidate with very little chance of winning the 2024 election.
During an appearance on CNN’s ‘State of the Union,’ DeSantis criticized the 77-year-old Trump for his age and predicted a crushing defeat in the general election if he were to win the Republican nomination next year. DeSantis contrasted himself with his opponent, telling host Jake Tapper that he was in the “prime of his life” and ready to take office.
“I wouldn’t be running it unless I thought that the Democrats would beat Trump if he were the nominee,” DeSantis told the CNN host.
“They’re going very easy on him right now. They’re they’re not saying much. The minute he were to be the nominee, you’re going to see scorched earth. You’re going to see all this stuff brought up from from the past. And the whole election will end up being a referendum on Donald Trump. And [President Joe] Biden will be able to hang out in the basement. And I think he’ll be able to get away with it again.”
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Q: Are you saying Trump would lose to Joe Biden?
DeSantis: “I wouldn’t be running unless I thought the Democrats would beat Trump if he were the nominee.
“If he were to be the nominee, you’re going to see scorched earth. You’re going to see all the stuff brought up from the… pic.twitter.com/kyooU4Thp8
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) November 19, 2023
The Florida Governor pointed out that if Trump were elected to the White House next year, he would take office at 79 years old–older than Joe Biden when he assumed office at the age of 78.
“The presidency is not a job for somebody that’s pushing 80 years old,” DeSantis continued.
“I just think that that’s something that has been shown with Joe Biden. Father Time is undefeated. Donald Trump is not exempt from any of that. I think with somebody like me … I’m in the prime of my life. I go in day one, I’ll serve two terms, deliver big results and get the country moving again. That’s what Republican voters want to see.”
Last month, the DeSantis campaign launched an “accident tracker” to record Trump’s gaffes and missteps on the campaign trail.
“This is not the same guy as the Trump in 2015 and ’16,” DeSantis told Tapper. “That Trump would show up on the debate stage, he’d barnstorm. Yeah, he was off-color, he was edgy, but it was all part of an idea that he was really going to shake things up.”
“Now he’s wedded to the teleprompter. He’s not willing to debate, and he’s running on many of the same things he promised to do in 2016 didn’t deliver,”
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Ron DeSantis: "The presidency is not a job for somebody that's pushing 80 years old."
"I'm in the prime of my life. I go in day one, I'll serve two terms, deliver big results and get the country moving again. That's what Republican voters want to see." pic.twitter.com/Un2IIxgUD9
— Never Back Down (@NvrBackDown24) November 19, 2023
Shortly after the CNN interview, the Trump campaign fired back at DeSantis’s comments, with spokesman Steven Cheung accusing the Florida Governor of a “mental breakdown.”
“President Trump is crushing Ron DeSantis by historic proportions in every single poll,” Cheung said Sunday in a statement to the New York Post.
“Ron must have either slammed his own head against the wall or is going through some mental breakdown for him to say something stupid like that.”
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