DeSantis on Trump’s latest attacks: ‘I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) responded on Wednesday to former President Trump’s latest social media posts attacking him, saying that he spends his time “delivering results” instead of criticizing fellow Republicans.

“I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden,” DeSantis said at a press conference Wednesday. “That’s how I spend my time. I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans.”

Trump fired off a series of posts criticizing DeSantis on his social media app, Truth Social, on Tuesday. He reposted other users’ posts that alleged DeSantis was at a party with underage girls when he was a high school teacher and posted that he would not have endorsed DeSantis had he known he voted against a border security bill when he was a member of the House in 2018.

“Wow, if I knew that I wouldn’t have Endorsed him (and he would have had to quit the race, down 35 points!),” Trump said in response to a post that said DeSantis did not vote for the bill.

DeSantis, along with 111 other House Republicans, in 2018 voted against the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act, which would have provided funds for a wall along the U.S.’s southern border, among other things. The bill failed in the House.

At a roundtable discussion on Tuesday, DeSantis suggested that the Florida legislature should make it easier for people to hold the media accountable for defamation. When asked about whether this new proposal would address those posts by Trump, he said the proposal is not for people like him who have platforms and could fight back.

“I have a platform to fight back,” he said on Wednesday. “A lot of these other people that are more little, they don’t necessarily have a platform to fight back. And so in terms of our reforms, I really want to empower them.”

“It’s also, just practically speaking, I would not take time out of being governor to be fighting lawsuits,” he continued. “It’s just not not practical in terms of what we’re doing.”