Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s campaign will release a video Wednesday before the first GOP primary debate foreshadowing how he will handle expected attacks from the other 2024 presidential candidates.
The Daily Caller first obtained a copy of the video, which features various clips of DeSantis pushing back against different narratives and probing questions he has confronted on the campaign trail. DeSantis, who has maintained a second-place spot in the polls well behind former President Donald Trump, is expected to take the most heat from his GOP competitors during the debate in Wisconsin.
The video will serve as a preview of how DeSantis will respond from center stage.
“Now just days away, Ron DeSantis will be target number one. or enemy number one. Ramaswamy, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, will all lay into Ron DeSantis, because we know that group of candidates is trying to get into that second-tier spot that’s held by Ron DeSantis,” The Hill reporter Julie Manchester says in a Fox News appearance featured in the video.
“There’s a fake narrative. I just disabused you of the narrative, and you don’t care about the facts. No, you’re wrong. You’re wrong, you’re wrong,” DeSantis says in one clip, taken from an April 2021 confrontation with a CBS reporter.
“We’re not gonna let you impose an agenda on our kids. That’s what we are going to do,” the Florida governor says in another clip, drawn from his response to a heckler who called him a “fucking fascist” at a South Carolina campaign rally in June.
“I do think something very telling about Donald Trump going after DeSantis … I expect all the other candidates to go after DeSantis. You get ahead of this race by taking down Ron DeSantis,” former Republican Florida Rep. David Jolly says in a clip from an appearance on MSNBC.
“When they’re attacking you, that means you’re over the target. We’re happy to field that and we’ll hold our own,” DeSantis says in another clip, this one drawn from an August NewsNation interview. “The reason why they’re doing it is because, objectively, I’ve got a great record to run on — political success, huge policy success. You have to earn this nomination and you have to show up. You’ve got to be willing to answer questions. You’ve got to be willing to defend your record.” (RELATED: DeSantis Responds To Leaked Debate Memo Strategy Targeting Rival)
“Well here I stand, I am not backing down one inch, I am gonna do what’s right,” he adds, as the video concludes. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: DeSantis’ Never Back Down PAC Releases New Ad — ‘Punching Back’)
With Trump’s absence, DeSantis will be debating former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.