Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested former President Donald Trump should be removed from the GOP primary if he is convicted in any of the cases against him.
“Do I think somebody under those circumstances could get elected president? The answer is no,” Mr. DeSantis told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday. “That will not happen. I think that Republican voters will understand that as we get closer to voting. But it is—it would be fatal in a general election, and I don’t think the party should—should nominate in that situation.”
The governor, who is behind President Trump in the polls by double-digits, said that the former president would be defeated in 2024 if he’s convicted and becomes the GOP nominee. However, he said he would stand by his pledge to back the nominee the party chooses.
“I signed the pledge. I’m a Republican. I don’t think it’s going to come to that, and I think we‘ll be—we’ll get the job done like we need to, but the reality is I signed it, and that’s what I did,” Mr. DeSantis said.
“When I signed the pledge, you know, I knew ... you never know what’s going to happen,” he added. “It’s a crazy process. People make different decisions. And I think my point of view on it was, you know, I’m participating in this process. I’ve got the plan to win. We’re going to win.”
In the interview, the governor said he believes the multiple indictments against President Trump have energized the former president’s base and “sucked the oxygen” away from Republican challengers.
“When we got into the race, we were bracing for these indictments. I think it’s helped him. I think it sucked out the oxygen. We knew it was going to be a brutal summer,” Mr. DeSantis said. “All those cases have actually helped him, because I think it has rallied support, because I think people are sympathetic.”
President Trump is facing dozens of felony counts in four criminal cases in Washington, New York, Florida, and Georgia. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, saying the cases are designed to harm him politically.
About 10 weeks before Iowa’s caucuses launch the GOP nomination calendar, none of the would-be President Trump alternatives have broken out. And his grip on the 2024 nomination is as strong as ever.
Since announcing his bid in May, Mr. DeSantis, who was previously touted as an alternative to President Trump, has failed to gain much traction. Poll numbers show that his support has remained mostly the same, or under 15 percent, in recent weeks.
A Des Moines Register poll published Monday shows Mrs. Haley tied with Mr. DeSantis for second in Iowa, which holds the first-in-the-nation GOP caucuses on Jan. 15. Both candidates are at 16 percent. That’s 27 percentage points behind President Trump, whose support has been virtually unchanged since August despite several criminal indictments.
Mrs. Haley and Mr. DeSantis are in an increasingly expensive battle against each other as they head into the third Republican primary debate next week. The former president will skip the prime-time event, as he has the first two debates, and has said the Republican National Committee (RNC) should scrap any future debates and rally behind him to defeat President Joe Biden.
“There was a lot of donor support for Ron DeSantis at the start, but I think many donors today have stayed on the sidelines because either they fear retribution from Trump or they believe that Trump is inevitable,” said Marc Short, a longtime senior adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, who ended his presidential campaign on Saturday.
“I know most of the candidates running for president, and I respect their decision to put themselves through this very difficult process,” he said. “But Republican voters are making their voices heard loud and clear. They want to return to the leadership of Donald Trump.”
In response, Andrew Romeo, a spokesman for the DeSantis campaign, told media outlets that the governor “has the support of almost all Florida elected officials because he worked with them to deliver historic results for the conservative movement.”
“The governor will win his home state because Floridians want to see a fighter who will bring the same type of results-oriented leadership to Washington that he has provided in the Sunshine State,” he added.
