Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded to former President Donald Trump’s latest series of attacks against him during a Wednesday press conference.
Trump took to Truth Social on Tuesday to share an accusation that DeSantis partied with female high school students when he taught history at the Darlington School in Georgia. The former president also attacked DeSantis for voting against a 2018 immigration bill while he was in Congress and for supporting the arrest of Capitol rioters.
“I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden,” the governor said at the press conference. “That’s how I spend my time. I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans.”
Trump has attacked the governor over suspicions that DeSantis could challenge him for the Republican nomination in 2024. Trump’s attacks on DeSantis intensified after some polls showed DeSantis leading him among potential Republican primary voters. (RELATED: Trump Bashes DeSantis As ‘RINO Globalist’ After DeSantis Responds To Attacks)
The former president mockingly nicknamed the governor “Ron DeSanctimonious” at a November rally and later credited himself with DeSantis’ popularity. He recently took jabs at the governor for his COVID-19 response, accusing him of responding “far worse” than any other Republican governor.
DeSantis pushed back against the criticism at a Jan. 31 press conference, saying that he won his 2022 gubernatorial race “with the highest percentage of the vote” of any other Republican candidate in Florida, noting that he and his policies still remain widely popular in his state.
“I’m happy to say, you know, in my case, not only did we win reelection, we won with the highest percentage of the vote that any Republican candidate has in the history of the state of Florida,” DeSantis said. “That verdict has been rendered by the people of the state of Florida.”
The former president launched his third presidential bid in November after his handpicked candidates underperformed in the midterms and has repeatedly asserted that DeSantis challenging him in 2024 would be “a mistake.”