Florida Governor Ron DeSantis reminded Republican voters on Tuesday he “opposed” Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) “before it was cool.”
The Republican presidential candidate, who served in the House from 2013 to 2018, appeared on Fox News as the House was in the process of voting to remove McCarthy as speaker and was focused on providing leadership.
“I can tell you, as president, when I get in there, we’ll provide the leadership,” DeSantis said. “We’re not going to provide chaos and drama. We’re just going to provide an agenda that we can get done and turn the country around.”
Host Neil Cavuto asked him if he thought McCarthy failed to provide sufficient leadership.
“You know, I was one of the guys that opposed McCarthy before it was cool,” DeSantis said. “Now you’re in a situation that they haven’t produced results, and that’s just the reality. At the same time, though, I look at guys like Chip Roy, Tom Massie, Jim Jordan, and they’re basically saying there’s not a plan to go forward with whatever Matt Gaetz is doing.”
“And so, I’m somebody, if I go down a road, I will deliver results for it. I’m not just going to do it and flail around,” he continued. “It’s not going to just be about fundraising. I would have a plan in place to be able to deliver what I promised to deliver. I’m not sure that there’s a plan in place on this. I guess we’ll see as this vote unfolds.”
“You mentioned Matt Gaetz,” Cavuto said. “He was the one who initiated this process. Looks like he might succeed at kicking the speaker out. What do you think of him and this move?”
“Well, look, when I see the Republican congressman pointing out that there’s a lot of fundraising going on around that, you know, that makes me uncomfortable,” DeSantis replied. “I think when you’re doing things, you need to be doing it because it’s the right thing to do. It shouldn’t be done with an eye towards trying to generate lists or trying to generate fundraising. So, that is not the way I would operate. When we operate, we do what we think is right and let the chips fall where they may. You know, sometimes when you do the right thing, you get more support and that’s just the nature of it.”
DeSantis was confident that if leadership is provided, DC can make headway on the important issues of the day.
“Leadership starts at the top,” he said. “But I think the leader has to get people in line and try to deliver the victories. But I look at an issue like the border and immigration. I think that the failure theater that we’ve seen out of Republicans: ‘Oh, well, we only have the House. How can we do anything?'”
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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