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Ron DeSantis on Donald Trump & 2020 Election: "Of Course, He Lost"
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finally said publicly to NBC News what we've known for years. Yup, it's that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.
Okay, this is a tough one to call. On one hand, it takes the issue off of the table if & when he ever has that FOX "News" debate with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and moderator Sean Hannity. On the other hand, it's a direct attack on the dude who has a lot of worshippers whose votes he's going to need – a dude who's the GOP's clear frontrunner to be its 2024 nominee unless a bunch of indictments stop him first. If you haven't figured it out yet, we're talking about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and multi-impeached ex-reality show host & POTUS, Donald Trump. In a move that shouldn't be shocking, considering it's been three years since the election (but, hey… that's how low the bar's gotten), DeSantis finally admitted that… wait for it… Trump lost, and President Joseph Biden is the actual, real, voted-in-by-the-American-people POTUS.
Speaking with NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns for an interview set to hit the network news show on Monday, DeSantis initially kept his response to the matter vague. "Whoever puts their hand on the Bible on Jan. 20 every four years is the winner," DeSantis said. But that didn't mean DeSantis didn't have issues with how the election was run – including mail-in ballots (which Florida has had in place for quite some time). But after Burns brought the conversation back to the specific topic of Trump and his claims that he should still be POTUS, DeSantis was much clearer: "No, of course, he lost," DeSantis responded. "Joe Biden's the president." In fact, DeSantis used the time to explain why Trump was as much to blame for his loss as anyone, pointing to initiatives signed off on by the Trump Administration that promoted alternative voting options. "
But DeSantis also took aim at Trump, saying he set the stage for his own loss by signing the CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill in response to the Covid-19 crisis. About $400 million of that money went to help states with election administration — and many states made voting by mail more widely available during the pandemic. "But here's the issue that I think is important for Republican voters to think about: Why did we have all those mail votes?" DeSantis explained. "Because Trump turned the government over to Fauci [Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House Coronavirus Task Force]. They embraced lockdowns. They did the CARES Act, which funded mail-in ballots across the country."