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Ron DeSantis said Sunday he’s not interested in launching personal attacks on 2024 Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, even as the Florida governor continues to trail the former president by a wide margin in the polls.
Appearing on Fox News‘ MediaBuzz, DeSantis, whose campaign recently let go about a dozen staffers, was asked how his strategy at going after Trump contrasts with someone like former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s.
“Christie sayshe’s the only one that goesdirectly at Trump — insultfor insult, calling him acoward, and so forth — and that the rest of youjust dance around for fear ofoffending him or his supporters,” anchor Howard Kurtz said.“Does he have a point?”
DeSantis replied that he doesn’t “do insults.”
“I think just getting in thisinsult game turns voters off.It’s not something I want to do,” he explained, adding that he hasn’t shied away from criticizing Trump over policy matters like the southern border wall, the national debt, and his handling of Covid and the resulting lockdowns. In a Fox News appearance last week, for instance, DeSantis accused Trump of “colluding with big tech” to censor a story about Hunter Biden.
“I’ve been very, very frank atthat, but I have no interest inattacking Donald Trump or any ofthese other candidatespersonally,” he said. “I think we’ve got to rise abovethat and just focus on the issues.”
DeSantis trails Trump by about 30 percentage points nationally, according to FiveThirtyEight‘s polling average. In Iowa, the most recent poll shows Trump up 23 points.
DeSantis, whose performance thus far has worried conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch, as Rolling Stone reported, went on to deny that he let Trump form a narrative about him before he formally entered the GOP primary. Trump has had no problem throwing barbs at DeSantis, saying in early May that he “needs a personality transplant.”
“Did you let Trump define you bywaiting too long to respond tohis attacks when you werebeing governor and weren’t officially inthe race?” wondered Kurtz.
“Not at all,” DeSantis replied. “I think even some of these polls — if you’re going to take them forwhat they’re worth — theysay I have the highestfavorability among Republicanvoters, and so I think they made abig mistake by spending all thatmoney against me.”
