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Ron DeSantis group says Trump's 'hour of nonsense' CNN appearance shows he's 'stuck in the past'
A political action committee backing Florida governor Ron DeSantis has slammed former President Trump for his Wednesday night CNN town hall appearance, dubbing it 'over an hour of nonsense that proved Trump is stuck in the past'.
Erin Perrine, a spokesperson for Never Back Down, derided Trump in a statement for focusing on 'attacking DeSantis and lying about finishing the wall', adding that 'Trump still doesn't know where he stands on important conservative issues like supporting life and the second amendment.'
On Twitter, the super PAC echoed Perrine's statement, running through some of the topics the interview focused on - including past comments, the 2020 election and Jan 6 - and asked 'How does this Make America Great Again?'
Donald Trump appeared on CNN for the first time since his election on Wednesday. He spoke on issues including the 2020 election, the subsequent Capitol riots on 6 January 2021, Tuesday's guilty verdict over the abuse of writer E Jean Carroll, and the war in Ukraine.
Ron DeSantis has not announced his candidacy for the upcoming 2024 elections but is pegged as a likely Republican contender.
Trump appeared in a televised interview on CNN on Wednesday to discuss a number of issues
Ron DeSantis speaks during an event at True North Classical Academy in Miami, Florida, 9 May
Responding to a question about government mandates on business, Trump lashed out at DeSantis, who is currently embroiled in legal clashes with Disney, which the Florida governor has denounced as the 'Magic Kingdom of woke corporatism'.
Trump said: 'I think [DeSantis] ought to just relax and take it easy and think about the future, because right now his future is not looking so good.'
Chris Jankowski, CEO of Never Back Down, said in a statement after the interview: 'A candidate who has lost his luster appearing on a network that’s lost its ratings.
'Both ignore a key fact: 2024 isn’t 2016. The old gimmicks and tired lines don’t work anymore.'
Betfair still puts Trump as the most likely Republican nominee, with 4/9 odds (about 69%) versus DeSantis' 11/4 (about 27%).
Nikki Haley and Tim Scott have odds of 20/1 and 25/1 respectively.
For the election itself, President Joe Biden is still pegged as the most likely candidate with 13/8 odds versus Trump's 5/2 and DeSantis' 9/2,
Blasting the interview itself, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said: 'I think it was a profoundly irresponsible decision [to 'platform such atrocious disinformation'].
She continued: 'What we saw tonight was a series of extremely irresponsible decisions that put a sexual abuse victim at risk... in front of national audience... It was shameful.'
The interview with Kaitlan Collins lasted 70 minutes and covered a number of bases.
Trump dropped a number of bombshells, dubbing January 6 a 'beautiful day', insisting he had 'every right' to take classified documents to Mar-a-Lago, refusing to say whether he wanted Ukraine or Russia to win the war, saying he would resolve the conflict within a day, and saying the end of Title 42 would be a 'day of infamy'.
During the interview, Trump also called E Jean Carroll a 'whack job' for her rape allegations made against Trump, for which a jury awarded her $5mn in damages for abuse and defamation.
At one point, pressed on why he had taken classified documents to his Palm Beach home, Trump called Collins a 'nasty person'.
He said he was allowed to have the documents under the Presidential Records Act, which Collins rebuffed.
'That's not what the Presidential Records Act says,' she said.
Deflecting, Collins asked Trump to answer the question, to which he said: 'You're a nasty person, I'll tell you.'
Erin Perrine issued a statement after the interview, saying Trump was still 'stuck in the past'
Spokesperson Perrine shared the statement on behalf of the super PAC on Twitter
'I want people to stop dying,' Trump said, insisting he would resolve the war within 24 hours
Ron DeSantis has not announced whether he will run in the 2024 US elections.
He did, at the end of April, embark on a global trade mission, representing Florida to the world.
Unofficially, supporters say the tour of Japan, South Korea, Israel and the UK was to boost his foreign policy credentials before running for president.
DeSantis donor Dan Eberhart said the trip was timed to come just ahead of an expected 2024 announcement when the Florida legislative sessions ends in May.
'This is a prologue to a presidential campaign. This is similar to what both George W. Bush and Jeb Bush did,' he said, naming two other governors who ran for president.