Fox News host Laura Ingraham pressed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis about his poll numbers in the GOP presidential race, which are still lagging far behind former President Trump.
“Now, Governor, the latest CBS poll out of New Hampshire shows that you’re in second, albeit a distant second behind Trump,” Ingraham told DeSantis during an interview Tuesday evening on her nightly show. “You’re at 13 percent. He’s at 50 percent … How do you go from No. 2 to No. 1 given Trump’s huge lead in the polls?”
“Well, Laura, this is our time for choosing,” DeSantis responded. “We’re not gonna get a mulligan on the 2024 election. We’ve had three straight election cycles in a row where Democrats have a playbook to beat Republicans. And if we repeat that same playbook in ’24, we’re gonna lose.”
DeSantis mentioned the absence of a so-called “red wave” that was predicted to hand sweeping power back to Republicans in Congress as part of the 2022 midterm elections, alluding to Trump’s influence over the party as a factor that turned voters off.
Trump remains the clear front-runner for the party’s nomination for president in 2024, despite the several criminal indictments he faces.
DeSantis is one of several candidates looking to put forward a strong performance at Wednesday night’s debate, which will air on Fox Business, as he aims to break through the GOP primary field and pose a serious challenge to Trump.
Trump will not attend Wednesday night’s debate, citing his large polling lead and frosty relationship with Fox, instead opting to hold a rally in Michigan.
The former president has for months railed against Fox, the top-watched cable news channel, for what he says is a concerted effort by the network’s leaders to boost DeSantis’s candidacy.
Fox announced earlier this week that DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) will participate in a live debate in November that will be moderated by host Sean Hannity, a close personal friend of Trump and one of his biggest boosters in media.