Florida Governor Ron DeSantis refused to answer when pressed by Fox News about the possibility of a 2024 presidential bid.
DeSantis bested former President Donald Trump in a 2024 straw poll at the Western Conservative Summit last week.
During Monday’s episode of Fox & Friends, host Pete Hegseth tried his best to get a answer from DeSantis to the question many have been wondering.
“Let’s cut the small talk,” Hegseth said. “2022’s coming up, 2024. We know President Trump is considering a run. We know your name is atop that list as well. Where does that all sit in your mind right now?”
“It just sits when people always bring up my name,” DeSantis responded. “We’ve got a lot going on.”
DeSantis explained that he is focused on winning his 2022 race for re-election as governor of Florida and helping to bring a “red wave” across the nation.
Hegseth was not ready to give up, bringing up the film Top Gun and attempting to ask again.
“You should see ‘Top Gun,’ it’s amazing. Genuinely curious, if he runs do you run? How do you make that decision?” Hegseth said.
“Nice try man,” DeSantis replied. “We’re having fun here. It’s all good.”
At this point, co-host Ainsley Earhardt came in with an assist, asking “when will you announce or when will most candidates announce? Not until after midterms?”
“I have no idea,” DeSantis responded. “At the end of the day, the interesting thing about me is people always inject my name into it just based off what I’m doing in Florida. And so, you know, we’ve really gotten more notoriety not because I’m out trying to do that just because I’m getting things done for my people in my state.”
As Timcast previously reported, DeSantis has now defeated Trump twice in the Western Conservative Summit’s annual straw poll.
In this year’s poll, 71 percent said that they supported a DeSantis presidential run, and 67 percent wanted Trump to run again. Attendees were allowed to choose more than one candidate though, according to a report from Mediaite.
In May, DeSantis beat Trump as the top pick for 2024 in a Wisconsin Republican Party straw poll.
When presented with a hypothetical 2024 GOP field, nearly 38 percent of attendants backed DeSantis, while Trump came in second at 32 percent. None of the other possible candidates made it into the double digits.
DeSantis also recently caught up to Trump as a front-runner on PredictIt for odds of winning the 2024 election.
Neither of the two have officially announced that they are running in 2024, though Trump has repeatedly heavily implied that he will be.
In February, Trump stated that he has already won twice and that he will be doing it again for a “third time,” during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
“We did it twice, and we’ll do it again. We’re going to be doing it again a third time,” Trump said to massive applause. “November 2024 they will find out like never before.”
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