Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is making the rounds of the early primary states, in between pushing back at adversarial reporting on his state’s history curriculum, agreeing to debate California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and setting the record straight on the nontroversy over the Orlando Magic campaign donation to the DeSantis Super PAC.
As a part of that tour, DeSantis took part in a town hall event, “Conversation with the Candidate,” in New Hampshire on Friday, and one question in particular addressed something that many people have been hoping to hear the answer to.
The host of the town hall asks DeSantis about sharing the debate stage with former President Donald Trump, and a potential situation arising of Trump “belittling” him. He asks how the governor will respond to that kind of attack.
DeSantis says:
So, here’s the thing. These insults are so phoney. These insults are juvenile. That is not the way a great nation should be conducting itself. That is not the way the President of the United States should be conducting himself.
I enjoy the debate. The people of New Hampshire have been great. They’re opinionated. Let’s have those debates about the issues. I’m not going to insult somebody. Somebody’s looks, somebody’s dress, or something like that. I wouldn’t teach my kids to treat someone like that–we have a six-, five-, and three-year-old. We teach our kids to treat someone the way you would want to be treated yourself.
So, we will have differences on issues, and you know, one of the things I think about the former president–and I appreciate that he did a lot of great things, and I was a big supporter–but he’s running in 2024 on the things he promised to do in 2016 and didn’t do.
After listing several areas where Trump didn’t follow through during his presidency, including retaining Dr. Anthony Fauci, DeSantis continues:
Don’t worry about how he does his hair and this stuff. We’ve got to stop with that. And here’s the thing: as Republicans,that will cause us to lose, if we behave that way. There are millions of voters out there who do not like what Biden is doing to this country….
But they are not going to sign up for a candidate who is behaving like that. So, let’s be better, looking higher, and let’s set a good standard for our children to follow.
The full event is below, courtesy of WMUR-TV: