Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) dodged a question around former President Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol during a New Hampshire campaign event Tuesday.
A Vermont high school student asked DeSantis if Trump “violated the peaceful transfer of power” in reference to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
DeSantis pivoted to asking the young man about his background, and instead chose to focus on President Biden and the 2024 election.
“If this election is about Biden’s failures and our vision for the future, we are going to win … If it’s about relitigating things that happened two, three years ago, we’re gonna lose,” DeSantis said.
“I wasn’t anywhere near Washington that day. I have nothing to do with what happened that day,” he continued. “Obviously, I didn’t enjoy seeing, you know, what happened. But we gotta go forward on this stuff. We cannot be looking backwards and be mired in the past.”
DeSantis is one of many candidates vying for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, and he joins a growing list of contenders who have chosen not to criticize the former president or comment on the events of Jan. 6. Last week, Trump spoke at a fundraiser for Jan. 6 defendants.
Trump’s former vice president and fellow 2024 GOP candidate, Mike Pence, said the insurrection should be disqualifying.
The former president is under investigation by a federal special counsel for his role in the insurrection and other attempts to undermine or overturn the 2020 election.