By MICHELLE L. PRICE (Associated Press)
NEW YORK (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis mentioned definitively that rival Donald Trump misplaced the 2020 election, an acknowledgment the Florida governor made after years of equivocating solutions.
“Of course he lost,” DeSantis mentioned in an interview with NBC News posted Monday. “Joe Biden’s the president.”
DeSantis has usually sidestepped questions on whether or not he believes the 2020 election outcomes have been legit. But in latest days he has began publicly questioning the lies that Trump and his allies have made concerning the election’s legitimacy.
Federal and state election officers and Trump’s personal legal professional normal mentioned there was no credible proof the election’s final result was affected by fraud. The former president’s allegations have been additionally roundly rejected by courts on the time, together with judges he appointed.
Last week, Trump was charged by Justice Department particular counsel Jack Smith with 4 felonies associated to his efforts to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election within the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
DeSantis’ shift in rhetoric has come as he seeks to reset his stagnant 2024 White House marketing campaign. Trump, who stays broadly fashionable with the Republican Party base, is the early and commanding front-runner in subsequent yr’s GOP presidential major.
DeSantis in his interview at first didn’t supply a transparent reply when requested if Trump misplaced, saying, “Whoever puts their hand on the Bible on Jan. 20 every four years is the winner.” But he gave a extra direct reply when pressed once more.
The governor repeated his issues about voting strategies from the 2020 election, criticizing mail voting and so-called “ballot harvesting,” however like different Republicans he mentioned he would embrace the strategies he had criticized.
“We are going to do it, too. We’re not going to fight with one hand tied behind our backs,” DeSantis mentioned.
Academic analysis has proven that mail voting will increase turnout however doesn’t profit both social gathering. Campaigns have usually pushed for it, permitting them to lock in votes early and focus their efforts on Election Day to encourage straggling supporters to get to the polls.
“The issue is, I think, what people in the media and elsewhere, they want to act like somehow this was just like the perfect election. I don’t think it was a good-run election, but I also think Republicans didn’t fight back. You’ve got to fight back when that is happening,” he mentioned.
DeSantis has solid himself on the marketing campaign path as somebody who may extra efficiently implement Trump’s politics and has walked a wobbly line criticizing his actions.
Last month, he mentioned Trump ought to have supplied a stronger condemnation of the Jan. 6 assault. But he additionally mentioned it was not an rebel however a “protest” that “ended up devolving, you know, in a way that was unfortunate.”
DeSantis has argued Republicans will lose in 2024 in the event that they’re specializing in the previous election and the previous president’s authorized issues, which additionally contains federal expenses of mishandling categorized paperwork, together with these saved at Mar-a-Lago in a ballroom and loo, amongst different areas.
“If the election is a referendum on Joe Biden’s policies and the failures that we’ve seen and we are presenting a positive vision for the future, we will win the presidency,” DeSantis informed NBC. “If, on the other hand, the election is not about Jan. 20, 2025, but Jan. 6, 2021, or what document was left by the toilet at Mar-a-Lago, if it’s a referendum on that, we are going to lose.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”