Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged the GOP to quit talking about January 6 or risk losing the 2024 presidential election when the Republican candidates were asked for the first time about former President Donald Trump during Wednesday’s primary debate.
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - AUGUST 23: Republican presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ... [+]
DeSantis said “we’ve answered this so many times . . . Mike [Pence] did his duty, I’ve got no beef with him,” when asked by Fox News moderators whether Pence did the right thing when he rejected former President Donald Trump’s pleas to reject the Electoral College results of the 2020 presidential election on January 6.
DeSantis urged the GOP to focus on other issues, warning that “Democrats would love” if Republicans continued to rehash January 6, adding “they will win if we let them get away with it.”
DeSantis initially side-stepped the question, before he was prompted by Pence, and said “this election is not about January 6 of 2021, it’s about January 20 of 2025,” when the next president will take office.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, when asked whether Pence did his duty on January 6, said he “did the right thing,” before launching into a rebuke of the Justice Department and promising to fire Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray if elected, heeding to the GOP narrative that the Justice Department has weaponized against Trump.
This is a developing story and will be updated.