Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took a shot at former President Donald Trump, his potential 2024 presidential primary opponent, by saying it's time to actually build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
"And I just think that, you know, we've talked a lot, but I think we need to get serious and finally build a wall along the southern border – needs to be done," DeSantis said from the podium at an event in Georgia on Thursday to promote his new book, "The Courage to be Free."
A main thrust of Trump's 2016 campaign was the immigration crisis at the southern border and his promise to construct a wall to prevent mass immigration from Mexico and other countries. But even with two years of Republican-controlled Congress after first winning the White House, Trump wasn't able to complete the wall; about 450 miles of new, replacement or secondary border wall was built, and most of that replaced existing barriers.
DeSantis has yet to enter the race, and the latest Fox News national survey shows Trump has expanded is lead in the Republican primary race.
Republican primary voters were read a list of 15 announced and potential candidates for the 2024 nomination. The survey, released Wednesday, found that Trump has doubled his lead since February and is up by 30 points over DeSantis, 54% to 24%. Last month, he was up by 15 points, 43% to 28%.
No one else hits double digits. Mike Pence came in third with 6%, Liz Cheney and Nikki Haley received 3% each, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott came in at 2%. All others received 1% support or less.
During the event at the Adventure Outdoors gun store in Smyrna, Georgia, DeSantis praised the state for being one of the few states to limit lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"If it wasn’t for states like Georgia and Florida, people like Fauci would have won," DeSantis said Thursday, referring to the now-retired Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
"You would’ve had all this [locking down] throughout the entire country. They wanted to do rolling lockdowns," he said.
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Last month, DeSantis rolled out a new campaign video outlining "the Florida blueprint" for America, another indication he is preparing to launch a 2024 campaign for president.
"When the world lost its mind, when common sense suddenly became an uncommon virtue, Florida was a refuge of sanity, a citadel of freedom for our fellow Americans and even for people around the world," DeSantis said in the video.
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DeSantis drew a contrast between the Sunshine State and the Biden administration's handling of major issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis at the southern border.
Fox News Digital's Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.
