Ron DeSantis said that if Donald Trump is convicted, the Republican Party should ensure he is not nominated for president — and assured that he is confident Americans will not vote for the ex-president if he is ultimately convicted.
A general election with a convicted Trump as the Republican Party’s nominee would be “fatal” for the party, DeSantis said Thursday.
Florida’s governor signed the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) pledge to support the eventual 2024 nominee — and said he’s sticking with it despite the “crazy” that’s happened since he first signed the pledge.
Trump, who has a huge lead over the rest of the Republicans running for president, has faced a slew of lawsuits and charges since early 2023.
At the same time, the ex-president has refused to participate in the primary debates, claiming he was above events – much to the anger of his competitors.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said it would be “fatal” for the Republican Party if Donald Trump were convicted of a crime and became the GOP nominee for president in 2024. He also blasted the ex-president for refused to debate.
“We’re not going to win as Republicans by adopting the strategy that Biden did when he was in the basement during the 2020 campaign,” DeSantis said Thursday morning during an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program.
“That’s basically what Donald Trump is doing,” he claimed. “He refuses to debate.”
DeSantis, along with at least three other Republican candidates, will debate next Wednesday, November 8, for the third event of the primaries in Miami, Florida.
Trump will skip the debate again next week, instead holding a rally at the same time in another Florida city.
MSNBC host Willie Geist asked DeSantis if he would still support Trump if convicted of a crime.
‘You’re a lawyer. You served in the Navy. You were well educated in the best schools,” the host noted of the Florida governor. “Do you really believe that a man convicted of, say, trying to overturn the 2020 election or taking nuclear secrets to his beach club, actually believes that that person, as we sit here today, should be president? ‘
“So I signed a pledge, Willie, and that pledge is what it is,” DeSantis admitted.
“Do I think anyone can be elected president under these circumstances? The answer is no,” he added. ‘That will not happen. I think Republican voters will understand that as we get closer to the vote.”
However, he said that if Trump were elected as the Republican Party’s nominee and then convicted, it would be detrimental in the 2024 general election, and said the RNC should consider putting someone else on the ballot in that case to make.
Trump has faced a series of lawsuits and legal challenges since early 2023 that will continue throughout the year and into next. However, the ex-president is still the leading frontrunner in the 2024 presidential elections
“It would be fatal in a general election, and I don’t think the party should nominate (Trump) in that situation,” he said.
Trump still has a large lead in the polls, ahead of everyone else still in the running for the 2024 nomination.
Long in second place, Governor DeSantis is now slumping and sometimes even falling behind some of his competitors, both in national polls and among voters in early primaries.
‘I participate in this process. I have a plan to win. We’re going to win,” DeSantis assured.
“At the same time, it’s like you can’t just grab your ball and go home,” he added. “You can’t say out of one side of your mouth, ‘The country is in decline, Biden is failing,’ and then say out of the other side, you know, ‘I’m just going to pout if things don’t change. go my way.’
