Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz took aim at his “spirited” governor on Friday, taking much of the credit for presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis’s “meteoric rise” in popularity.
Gaetz guest-hosted Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight” on Friday and warned the anti-woke governor “won’t drop out” of the 2024 GOP primary race, despite former President Donald Trump’s call for him to do so in the name of “unity.”
(Video: Newmax)
“Just today, President Trump called for Ron DeSantis to drop out of the race and unify the Republican team,” Gaetz said. “That would certainly be something that I know a lot of Republicans would appreciate, a unified team.”
As chairman of DeSantis’s transition team when he became governor of the Sunshine State in 2018, Gaetz said he knows Trump’s foe “very well.”
“He’s a spirited competitor, very bright, and will likely be the last person to fully come to grips with the fundamentals of this 2024 primary,” he said.
“Know this,” the Florida lawmaker cautioned, “DeSantis won’t drop out. Trump is going to have to defeat him.”
“A nearly 40-point lead is typically a pretty good place to start,” he added.
“In a way, DeSantis’ own thinking about the viability of a sudden jolt from ‘also ran’ status to frontrunner is itself polluted by his experience with Trump,” Gaetz claimed.
“Ron DeSantis trailed fellow Republican Adam Putnam by 20 points or more at the beginning of his initial campaign for Florida governor,” he explained. “When he got President Trump’s endorsement, which I confess, I helped DeSantis secure, his polling rose faster than the price of Taylor Swift concert tickets.”
In addition to securing DeSantis’s “Swift” status, Gaetz also took credit for the governor’s claim that his skills at debating won him the governorship.
“In his book, DeSantis claims that it was really his debate performances that fueled his meteoric rise,” Gaetz said. “I coached DeSantis for all of those debates, and you know what was the principle point we sought to emphasize? That DeSantis could be trusted to back Trump, and the other guy couldn’t.”
Whether you agree with Gaetz’s remarks or not, the Congressman does appear to take his own advice and has proven himself trustworthy when it comes to backing his political opponent.
In May, Gaetz blasted a camera operator for leaking footage to ABC News of him prepping DeSantis in a mock debate.
‘Disloyal hackery’: Matt Gaetz, Byron Donalds slam ‘low class’ leak of DeSantis 2018 debate prep footage https://t.co/xty2w9YJS9 pic.twitter.com/KmQbga5jl6
— BizPac Review (@BIZPACReview) May 10, 2023
In the video, Gaetz asks the future governor, “Is there any issue upon which you disagree with President Trump?”
“I have to figure out how to do this,” DeSantis replied. “Obviously there is because, I mean, I voted contrary to him in the Congress. I have to frame it in a way that’s not going to piss off all his voters.”
DeSantis workshopped a response, saying he would “do what he thinks is right.”
“I support his agenda, in terms of what he’s been able to do,” DeSantis said. “If I have a disagreement, I talk to him in private.”
“I ran the Desantis Debate Prep in 2018,” Gaetz wrote on Twitter following the release of the footage. “Though I prefer Trump for President (bigly), the release of these videos by the person operating the camera is disloyal hackery that I do not abide.”
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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