Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis regrets snubbing corporate media outlets at the start of his presidential campaign, admitting that he should have been “blanketing” everything from the beginning.
The presidential hopeful made the remarks during an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, who asked, “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?'”
“Well, look, I mean, I think that, you know, presidential campaigns are a lot about media,” DeSantis began. “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,” he said, acknowledging that he did not do much media at the start of his campaign, which he launched in late May.
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“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,” DeSantis said, reflecting over the past several months after coming roughly 30 points behind former President Donald Trump in the Iowa caucuses.
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Margo Martin via Storyful“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,” he said.
“Now, I’m everywhere. I mean, I’ll show up wherever,” DeSantis said. “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,” the Florida governor commented before accusing his rivals of running basement campaigns.
“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,” he added.
Both CNN and ABC have canceled their respective debates ahead of New Hampshire’s primary race. Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley declined to participate in CNN’s debate as well as ABC News’s.
“Nikki Haley is afraid to debate because she doesn’t want to answer the tough questions, such as how she got rich off Boeing after giving them millions in taxpayer handouts as governor of South Carolina,” DeSantis said on Tuesday, asserting that Haley is “running to be Trump’s VP.”
“I won’t snub New Hampshire voters like both Nikki Haley and Donald Trump, and I plan to honor my commitments. I look forward to debating two empty podiums in the Granite State this week,” he added:
It should be noted that DeSantis’s campaign is already moving a majority of its resources to South Carolina ahead of the New Hampshire primary, as the Florida governor is averaging just six percent in the Granite State.
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