Piers Morgan on Monday once again graced the opinion pages of the New York Post, this time to advertise his forthcoming interview with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). Morgan shared extended transcripts of the sit-down, labeling DeSantis’ generally milquetoast responses to his questions an unprecedented and “blistering” attack on his political opponents.
The Florida governor spent most of the interview dancing around the question of whether he would run against former President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, telling Morgan only to “stay tuned.”
“That sounds like almost a ‘yes,’” Morgan pressed.
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“It’s a ‘stay tuned,’” DeSantis repeated.
When pressed by Morgan to respond to the recent barbs lobbed his way by Trump—including the disparaging nicknames “Meatball Ron” and “Ron DeSanctimonious”—DeSantis was cagey.
“I don’t know how to spell the sanctimonious one,” said DeSantis, who graduated from Yale University and Harvard Law School. “I don’t really know what it means, but I kinda like it, it’s long, it’s got a lot of vowels. We’ll go with that, that’s fine. I mean you can call me whatever you want, just as long as you also call me a winner.”
As for Trump’s policies as president, DeSantis again attempted to thread the needle, saying he would have handled the COVID-19 pandemic “different” from the way Trump had. He then pivoted to an easier target.
“I would have fired somebody like Fauci,” the governor said. “ I think he got way too big for his britches, and I think he did a lot of damage.”
Morgan wrote that DeSantis “also slammed Trump’s chaotic, self-obsessed, and divisive management style.” Indeed, the governor’s condemnation included sharp-witted jibes like, “just in terms of my approach to leadership, I get personnel in the government who have the agenda of the people and share our agenda.”
As if that clapback weren’t enough, DeSantis also saved some energy for his self-reported real enemy—President Joe Biden. Asked by Morgan if he felt he could beat Biden, DeSantis replied, “I think so,” in a manner labeled “unhesitatingly, and emphatically” by Morgan.
On more solid ground when discussing Biden, DeSantis stopped mincing words. “I think he’s failed the country,” he said. “I think the country wants a change. I think they want a fresh start and a new direction and so we’ll be very vocal about that.”
He also took time to decry “the woke agenda,” citing his track record as a lawmaker fighting “the woke ideology.”
Unsurprisingly, though, Morgan did not ask him to define what he meant by the phrase.
