Trump calls DeSantis fight ‘fake news’

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Donald Trump praised Ron DeSantis and said he continues to have a good relationship with him. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images

TALLAHASSEE – Donald Trump said the dispute he saw with Gov. Ron DeSantis even though the Republican governor will not back down from their high-profile split with those boosting the vaccine against Covid-19.

In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday night, Trump praised DeSantis and said he continues to have a good relationship with her. His comments came after Trump last week called politicians who refused to disclose whether they had received “no appetite” Covid booster shots – as DeSantis refused to do. DeSantis then came back last week with criticism of the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic.

“I get along with Ron,” Trump said. “Ron is very good at cheating on Mueller. He’s up front with Jim Jordan and all the rest of them.”

When he served in Congress, DeSantis was one of Trump’s strongest defenders on Fox News as former Special Adviser Robert Mueller investigated Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election. It got the Florida congressman backbench. on Trump’s radar, which endorsed him for governor and sparked his dismal win in the 2018 Florida GOP gubernatorial primary.

Tensions between the two have garnered increased attention in recent weeks as DeSantis has refused to say he will not challenge Trump in 2024 if the former president runs for re -election.

Trump also recently said he would beat DeSantis in a hypothetical matchup and said Covid vaccines. DeSantis was never against Covid vaccines but downplayed them while promoting monoclonal antibody treatments instead.

At a press conference on Friday, DeSantis maintained his former position that taking a booster shot should be a “private decision.”

“That’s something I think people should make their own decisions on,” he said without mentioning Trump. “I’m not going to use that, to be a weapon for people to use.”

Democrats wanting to derail the governor’s 2022 re-election effort and possibly a 2024 presidential bid have highlighted the apparent divide between DeSantis and his political mentor.

“While Ron DeSantis continues to care only about boosting his own political profile, there is no doubt that his bad fight with Donald Trump is just beginning,” said Sam Newton, the DGA’s deputy director of communications. in a statement earlier this week. “Trump has already attacked and completely derailed the re -election of other weak GOP governors across the country – and it looks like DeSantis is next.”

Trump took on former Republican Georgia Sen. David Perdue to mount a major challenge against GOP Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who provoked Trump’s anger by not blocking Joe Biden’s win in that key swing state.

Trump’s longtime confidant Roger Stone has also repeatedly attacked DeSantis recently, comments that were not directly related to Trump but raised questions about Stone’s motivations.

“Gov. Ron DeSantis refuses to put his own ambitions into the presidency until President Donald Trump decides if he wants to run again, ”Stone said in a YouTube video last week.“ I consider that as an incredible one. superstitious acts of dishonesty and ingratitude. “

In November, DeSantis removed Stone, who at the time was threatening to run against him in 2022.

“Someone said he was going to run, but wasn’t he convicted criminal?” DeSantis told Fox’s Tampa affiliate. “People are free to run, I think that’s okay, and I certainly don’t have the right. I have to make money, but you can’t run if you’re a convicted criminal. ”

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