DeSantis Says ‘Of Course’ Trump Lost 2020 Election

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis further distanced himself from Donald Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election, saying in a television interview that “of course he lost.”

“Of course—Joe Biden’s the president,” DeSantis repeated when asked again by an NBC News reporter in a segment that aired Monday.

The comments are DeSantis’s strongest to date and put him at odds with Trump’s continued claims of widespread election fraud, which have been proved false and rejected in numerous courts. They came as DeSantis is trying to recalibrate his campaign after slumping in polls and taking criticism from some allies that he hasn’t differentiated himself from Trump. DeSantis is also doing more interviews with reporters, after largely sticking to conservative media, and is often questioned about Trump.

DeSantis still faulted the 2020 election, questioning the legality of some changes Democrats made to voting laws during Covid-19 and saying technology companies censored coverage of the business dealings of President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. “And so I don’t think it was the perfect election,” the governor said.

DeSantis also distanced himself from Trump’s 2020 claims while campaigning in Iowa on Friday.

“I’ve said many times the election is what it is,” DeSantis told a reporter. “All those theories that were put out did not prove to be true. But what I’ve also said is the way you conduct a good election that people have confidence in, you don’t change the rules in the middle of the game.”

A Trump spokesman, Steven Cheung, said: “Ron DeSantis should really stop being Joe Biden’s biggest cheerleader, it’s very unbecoming of him. Maybe that’s why he’s plummeted in the polls and getting squashed like a little bug by President Trump.” 

DeSantis has at times avoided directly commenting on the election, including whether it was rigged, though he has said generally that Republicans need to move on from their culture of losing. He pushed back on calls from some Florida Republicans to conduct an audit of the election, even as Trump won the state. But he also pushed for the creation of the Office of Election Crimes and Security.

DeSantis isn’t alone among 2024 GOP presidential candidates in saying that Trump lost.

Former Vice President Mike Pence,

“President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution,” Pence said in June when he announced his bid. “Now voters will be faced with the same choice. I chose the constitution, and I always will.”

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, has said she disagrees with the former president when it comes to the 2020 election’s outcome. “There was fraud in the election, but I don’t think that the numbers were so big that it swayed the vote in the wrong direction,” she told The Wall Street Journal in 2021.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said in July, while campaigning in Iowa, that he disagrees with Trump’s version of the election results as well. “I do not believe the election was stolen,” he said.

Former New Jersey Gov.

Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy has criticized Trump for not conceding the 2020 election, and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson frequently says the former president lost that contest.

Write to Alex Leary at [email protected] and John McCormick at [email protected]