Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis declared that he is the right person to "drain the swamp" in Washington as a president – a feat, he argued, former President and 2024 GOP front-runner Donald Trump never accomplished in his term.
"I give him credit, even though we're competing, for the great things he did do. But one of the things he did not do was drain the swamp… the swamp got worse in his four years," DeSantis said on "The Ingraham Angle" Tuesday.
DeSantis told host Laura Ingraham he is the best candidate to end the political "weaponization" of the federal government, which he said would start with the termination of FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Wray, a Trump appointee, was suggested by ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, according to the current front-runner, who has since distanced himself from that decision.
"You're going to see the DOJ cleared out. We are going to ensure a single standard of justice in this country again. And I can say that with credibility, because I've done that in the state of Florida," DeSantis said.
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DeSantis cited several examples of Floridian officials at the state and county level either being removed from office at his behest, or having his office accept their resignations.
He said there have been two left-wing prosecutors "funded by [Hungarian-American financier George] Soros who were not enforcing the law.
Last week, DeSantis suspended Monique Worrell, a state prosecutor for Orange and Osceola Counties. Worrell reportedly received support funded by groups linked to Soros, though she later distanced herself from the left-wing billionaire, according to the Washington Examiner.
Worrell responded to her suspension by calling DeSantis a "weak dictator" and claiming it represented the "loss of democracy."
In 2022, DeSantis fired Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, a Tampa Democrat whom the governor accused of neglecting his law enforcement duties via selective prosecution and the like.
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"I've shown an ability to take action and get the job done. And as the president, I am going to do the same thing," DeSantis said.
He also cited his 2019 executive order suspending Palm Beach County's top election official, Susan Bucher, and accepting the resignation of neighboring Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes following a ballot-counting controversy.
On Fox News, DeSantis said Trump had, for example, several years to terminate Wray, adding that he also ultimately declined to "lock her up" in the case of Hillary Clinton.
"Two weeks after the election, he said, ‘Never mind that I said that’ and let her off the hook," DeSantis said.
When pressed on how the GOP base could rally behind a Trump-less ticket in 2024, DeSantis pointed to how Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was able to win a resounding re-election despite warring with Trump and the fact Republicans largely underperformed in 2022.
"Donald Trump opposed him throughout that election, and even suggested Stacey Abrams would be a better governor," he said, referring to comments the former president made at a Perry, Ga. rally in 2021.
"And then in Florida, we won re-election by a record margin for a Republican: Over 1.5 million votes. Donald Trump attacked me three days before the midterm election."
In 2022, DeSantis handily defeated Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist, a former governor and then-congressman from St. Petersburg.
He said 2024 turnout issues would only surface if the GOP nominated a "Rockefeller Republican" or someone without a successful track record in their former role.
For his part, Trump has repeatedly criticized DeSantis, calling him "Ron DeSanctimonious" and asserting he only endorsed him over Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in the 2018 primary essentially because the then-congressman asked him to.
In the key caucus state of Iowa, Trump claimed DeSantis "totally despises ethanol" – a product key to a state known for its corn production, which a DeSantis campaign official told the Associated Press was a distortion and that the governor will "use every tool available to open new markets" for U.S. farmers.
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