Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo confronted Republican presidential candidate and Florida governor Ron DeSantis about a lack of enthusiasm surrounding his run Sunday.
Bartiromo cited a Politico Playbook note which said DeSantis’ campaign had a “failure to launch,” while citing polls.
“What’s going on with your campaign?” Bartiromo said. “There was a lot of optimism about you running for president earlier in the year … What happened?”
“Maria, these are narratives,” DeSantis said, laughing. “The media does not want me to be the nominee. I think that’s very, very clear. Why? Because they know I’ll beat Biden. But even more importantly, they know I will actually deliver on all these things: we will stop the invasion on the border, we’ll take on these drug cartels, we’ll curtail the administrative state, we’ll get spending under control. We’ll do all the things that they don’t want to see done.” (RELATED: ‘We Reject Bidenomics’: Ron DeSantis Lays Out Vision For The Future, Rips Liberal Social Policies)
“This is not something I ever expected to just snap fingers and, all of a sudden, you know, you win seven months before anyone happens,” he said. “You got to earn it and you got to work. And it requires a lot of toil and tears and sweat. And we’re going to do that.”
Bartiromo noted a recent Fox News poll which found DeSantis trailed former President Donald Trump by 34 points, arguing Trump likely is doing well because Americans are fed up with a politicized Justice Department. She then asked DeSantis if he planned on participating in the August debate.
“Of course I look forward to doing it,” DeSantis said. “I think really, Maria, that’s when people are really going to start paying attention to the primary. I think up to this point, a lot of that has been about some of these legal cases. And I think a lot of the voters’ concern [is] about that and understandably so.”
DeSantis currently trails Trump 53% to 20.9% in the RealClearPolitics average. The sharp decline comes just months after DeSantis held a substantial lead over Trump. A December Wall Street Journal poll found that 52% of Republican voters supported DeSantis compared to 38% who supported Trump. Trump’s popularity, however, has surged in the polls after his indictments in Florida and New York.