Florida Governor Ron DeSantis quit the presidential race on January 21 and endorsed former President Donald Trump, in a video he posted to X.
DeSantis said that he launched his campaign to “bring accountability to government.” He said the country can not survive if “our cities crumble” and kids are “indoctrinated,” and he told voters that the Washington D.C. elites “do not care about you.”
“Reversing the decline of this nation requires leadership that brings big results,” DeSantis said in the video.
He then announced that he was suspending his campaign and endorsing Trump, calling the former president “superior to the current incumbent Joe Biden.”
DeSantis captioned his video with a quote from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
DeSantis’s exodus from the race sets up a showdown between Trump and former South Carolina Nikki Haley in New Hampshire.
Here’s what you need to know:
Ron DeSantis Said, ‘We Left It All Out on the Field’ Before Announcing That He Was Suspending His Presidential Campaign
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
– Winston Churchill
In the video, DeSantis said he and his wife, Casey, left “it all out on the field.”
After he finished second in the Iowa caucus to Trump, he said that he and his wife prayed and deliberated about what to do next. But he said they decided that he couldn’t ask his supporters to donate their time and money without a clear path forward to obtain the nomination.
“I am today suspending my campaign,” he said before announcing he was endorsing Trump.
DeSantis said it is clear primary voters “want to give Donald Trump another chance.”
He said he had disagreements with Trump, especially over COVID-19 and Anthony Fauci, but he reiterated that he believes Trump “is superior to the current incumbent Joe Biden. That is clear.”
He said that he had signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee and that Trump “has my endorsement,” reasserting that he would “honor” that pledge.
“I am proud to have delivered on 100 percent of my promises, and I will not stop now,” he said.
Democrats are “using lawfare” to “attack him,” he said of Trump.
“He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents,” DeSantis said, referring to the former South Carolina governor who placed third in Iowa and who is still in the race.
“The days of putting Americans last, of kowtowing to large corporations, of caving to woke ideology are over,” said DeSantis.
Nikki Haley breaks the news that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race here at an event in Seabrook. Here’s what she had to say.
Haley responded on the campaign trail, saying she wished DeSantis well and “it’s now one fella and one lady left.”
Shortly Before the Announcement, Bloomberg News Reported the Situation Was ‘Fluid’
GettyRon DeSantis.
Bloomberg indicated the situation was “fluid” shortly before DeSantis’s announcement.
DeSantis “and his top aides are having internal discussions about when and how he should drop out of the 2024 presidential race,” Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources “briefed on the campaign’s conversations.”
“The discussions are fluid, with the governor and his wife, Casey, as the final decision-makers,” Bloomberg reported.
The decision was widely rumored after DeSantis canceled a series of network television appearances planned for January 21.
However, just on January 20, Bryan Griffin, DeSantis’s press secretary, was trying to explain away those cancellations. “The media hits were canceled due to a scheduling issue and will be rescheduled,” he wrote on X. “The governor will be traveling Sunday morning with the campaign and has public events scheduled Sunday evening through Tuesday in NH.”
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