Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) dismissed former President Donald Trump's claim that he won the 2020 presidential election.
DeSantis has avoided giving a clear answer on the 2020 election fraud claims about whether his top GOP opponent lost the last presidential election since he launched his campaign earlier this year. However, when pressed about whether Trump won in 2020, the Florida governor gave a clear answer.
"No, of course he lost," DeSantis said in a Sunday interview with NBC News that airs Monday. "Joe Biden's the president."
While acknowledging that he did not believe the 2020 election ran perfectly, DeSantis quipped that "whoever puts their hand on the Bible on Jan. 20 every four years is the winner."
"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," DeSantis said in the NBC news interview. "But I also think Republicans didn’t fight back. You’ve got to fight back when that is happening."
DeSantis said to NBC News that Trump set himself up for his own loss, particularly due to an increase in mail-in voting during the pandemic and his response to COVID-19. The Republican National Committee has urged its voters to embrace early voting, as well as voting by mail — something Democrats have used to their advantage over the years.
"But here’s the issue that I think is important for Republican voters to think about: Why did we have all those mail votes? Because Trump turned the government over to [Anthony] Fauci," DeSantis said. "They embraced lockdowns. They did the CARES Act, which funded mail-in ballots across the country."
His comments come after he told a crowd in Iowa on Friday that the election fraud theories "did not prove to be true," as he continues to receive pressure from reporters and voters to denounce Trump's claims. He did not address Trump, who is the GOP frontrunner, by name — DeSantis has attempted to steer clear of outright mudslinging the former president, as several key battleground states are filled with Trump supporters.
However, he is still looking to present himself as the best alternative to Trump for the 2024 election, drawing attention to his 2022 midterm win in Florida and the state's recent legislative wins.
On the other side, Trump is facing three indictments: two federal and one out of Manhattan, New York. The most recent indictment, which dropped on Aug. 1, stems from special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
DeSantis blasted the Justice Department for "weaponization" when Trump's third indictment was announced. However, the governor said to NBC News that Republicans are focusing too much on Trump, his indictments, and the past, which could lead to another GOP loss in 2024.
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"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 and we will have a chance to turn the country around," DeSantis said. "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."
DeSantis remains steadily in second place behind Trump in most state and national polls. Real Clear Politics puts him at an average of 15.7%, 38 percentage points behind the former president.