AP Photo/File
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday spoke to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt for a lengthy interview about the state of his 2024 presidential campaign. Hewitt ended the interview by asking DeSantis if he had any regrets, given that he has largely fallen short of the high expectations many pundits and observers had for his run.
“Okay, so my last question for you, Governor, you deployed in Iraq with the SEALs as their legal advisor. You know they do a hotwash after every mission. You’ve been at this for a year and a half now. What errors did you make that you’re willing to say I shouldn’t have done this, but I’m going to correct it going forward and I’m going to do well in March?” Hewitt asked DeSantis.
“Well, look, I mean I think that you know, presidential campaigns are a lot about media,” DeSantis replied, adding:
Like you know, I spent a lot of time on the ground in Iowa, and it’s good. And when you meet people, you convert them. But there’s just so many voters out there that you’ve got to do. And I came in not really doing as much media. I should have just been blanketing. I should have gone on all the corporate shows. I should have gone on everything.
I started doing that as we got into the end of the summer, and we did it. But we had an opportunity, I think, to come out of the gate and do that and reach a much broader folk. Now, I’m everywhere. I mean, I’ll show up wherever. I committed to do the debate tonight on WMUR and ABC in New Hampshire. I’m the only one that’s willing to debate. I’ve done these televised town halls. I go out and take questions from voters. You know, I think that’s good.
Notably, DeSantis had made a point of avoiding mainstream media early in his campaign and was criticized for being too “online” – even choosing to launch his campaign in a glitch-filled, audio-only announcement on X.
DeSantis pivoted to blast his rivals and accused former President Donald Trump of avoiding the campaign trail:
I’m the only one that’s not at this point running a basement campaign. Biden’s running a basement campaign. Trump won’t debate, won’t take questions from voters. And now, Haley won’t debate and won’t take questions from voters.
“Governor, last quick question. I will offer whoever the nominee is, because I am neutral, an hour a week on the radio for 475 stations. Will you take that offer if you’re the nominee?” Hewitt asked to end the interview.
“Yeah, and you know what I’d like to do, too, is if you want to open up for questions from your audience, I’d be happy to come and field questions from the audience. I’ll tell you, I’ve enjoyed that part of this process to just talk to American citizens, voters that really care about the future of this country. And you know notice a huge difference between the questions that, the kind of the New York media ask,” DeSantis replied as Hewitt added, “Amen.”
Listen to the full interview here.
