Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is gearing up for his fight with former Republican President Donald Trump over the GOP's 2024 presidential nomination.
To that end, DeSantis went on the attack against Trump on his former favorite network, Fox News.
On Sunday’s MediaBuzz, Fox host Howard Kurtz pointed out former New Jersey GOP Governor Chris Christie centered his campaign on attacking Trump.
You can see the exchange here:
Watch the latest video at <a href="https://www.foxnews.com">foxnews.com</a>
Kurtz told DeSantis:
"Chris Christie, who was on this program a couple of weeks ago, says he’s the only one who goes directly at Trump insult for insult—calling him a coward and so forth."
“And that the rest of you just dance around for fear of offending him or his supporters."
Kurtz asked:
"Does he have a point?"
DeSantis responded:
"I don’t do insults."
“So that is true. I think just getting in this insult game turns voters off."
The controversial Florida governor added:
"Substantively, we've been very frank about our differences with respect to the former President."
DeSantis then listed Trump's failures, from his perspective.
"I mean, for example, he promised to drain the swamp – it got worse. He did not drain the swamp.
"He promised to have Mexico pay for a border wall. They did like 50 miles of wall. There's massive expanses still there."
"He said he was going to eliminate the national debt. They added almost $8 trillion to the debt in four years."
"And of course, in 2020, he turned the country over to Dr. Fauci, and those lockdowns and the borrowing and printing really set us on a bad course."
"I've been very, very frank at that."
Fox viewers were less than enthusiastic about DeSantis.
DeSantis—who continues to trail behind Trump in polls—stated:
"I have no interest in attacking Donald Trump or any of these other candidates personally."
"I think we’ve got to rise above that and let's focus on the issues."
Given insults and name-calling—no matter how childish—feature prominently in every statement the GOP frontrunner makes, DeSantis' strategy may not resonate with Republican voters.
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