Florida governor and presidential hopeful tells CNN he hopes his rival is not charged after Trump says he is target of DoJ inquiry.
Ron DeSantis said charges against Donald Trump over his election subversion that culminated in the deadly January 6 attack on Congress would not be good for the US.
“I hope he doesn’t get charged,” the Florida governor told CNN in a much-trailed interview on Tuesday. “I don’t think it’ll be good for the country.”
DeSantis also sought to brush off concerns about the state of his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, in which he trails Trump by around 30 points while reportedly experiencing fundraising problems and implementing staff changes.
Media outlets reporting such challenges were biased, DeSantis said, having “been saying that I’ve been doing poorly for my whole time as governor, basically”.
DeSantis did however perhaps unwittingly point to a perceived problem with his campaign: that it is largely based on attacks on “wokeness” in public life (loosely put, the pursuit of liberal policies meant to achieve equity on grounds of race and sexual and gender identity) when many Americans cannot define what he means.
“Not everyone really knows what wokeness is,” DeSantis admitted. “I mean, I’ve defined it, but a lotta people who rail against wokeness can’t even define it.”
DeSantis also remained reluctant to attack Trump, even as the former president labours under unprecedented legal jeopardy including, so far, 71 criminal indictments.
Article URL : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/18/desantis-trump-cnn-interview-jan-6-charges