Florida - Tuesday November 15, 2022: The Governor has been the subject of recent criticism from former President Donald Trump following DeSantis’ overwhelming victory in last week’s Florida Gubernatorial election. In particular, Trump has claimed credit for helping DeSantis win the Governor’s seat back in 2018, and recently called the Florida Governor "DeSanctimonious".
At a news conference in Fort Walton Beach Tuesday DeSantis responded, although without naming Trump.
When asked by a reporter for his reaction to Trump’s comments, he deflected the question and spoke broadly about the criticism he has faced throughout his first term as Governor.
“You know one of the things that I’ve learned in this job is when your leading, when your getting things done, you take incoming fire, that’s just the nature of it. But I don’t think any Governor got attacked more, particularly by corporate media, than me over my four-year term. And yet I think what you learn is all that’s just noise.”
And again, when asked about the poor showing of GOP candidates nationwide, many of whom were endorsed by Trump, DeSantis said this: “There were a lot, a lot of disappointments, that’s just the reality. It was a hugely underwhelming, disappointing performance. Well the one place I think people can look to as the blueprint is Florida.”
The Governor also pointed to last week’s sweeping election victory for the Florida republican party saying "Go check out the score board from last Tuesday night. It was the greatest republican victory in the history of the state of Florida. And it wasn’t just the best Governor victory, of course it was that, but we swept in super majorities in the Florida legislature.”
The numbers are historic said the Governor. “We have 85 republicans out of 12o in our state house, we’ve never had that many before. We have 28 (state) senators out of 40 that are republicans, never had that many, and we had 16 republican members of the U.S. House from Florida. Now we have 20.”
Trump and DeSantis are widely expected to go head-to-head for the republican nomination for President in 2024.