Republican presidential hopeful Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that former President Donald Trump needed to participate in a GOP primary debate.

Partial transcript as follows:

MARGARET BRENNAN: Our CBS polling shows half the country expects there will be violence from the side that loses in future elections. Do you share that concern about this race?

DESANTIS: Oh, I hope not. I mean- I think that, you know, we have an opportunity, one of the- one of the reasons I’m running is I think the Republicans, we have a great shot to win. If we frame the issues about the problems facing the country, the failures of the Biden administration, and how we have a great set of ideas to turn the country around. And I’ve shown how that can be done in Florida. I think if we’re re-litigating the past elections, if it’s about, you know, Donald Trump, or his legal issues, or criminal trials or all that stuff, you know, I think it’s going to be a really nasty election. I don’t think that puts Republicans in a good position to win. So we need to have an election on the issues. You know, we need a candidate that can win a clear cut victory, and we need to start looking forward as a country.

BRENNAN: You have never lost a political race before in your career. You are a second in the CBS Iowa projections. Is that victory enough for you?

DESANTIS: Well, we got to win a majority of the delegates. This is a long process. We’re doing really well in Iowa. You know, I kind of like being underestimated, Margaret. So I hope people kind of say that. But we’ve got the enthusiasm. When the calendar clicked to ’24, you see, we got more undecided voters coming out to all our events. So we’re going to outwork everybody. But this is a long process. There’s a lot that happens to accumulate all these delegates, we’re going to do well in Iowa, but we’re also going to be competing in all these other states. And I think that there’s a lot of real estate, I think a lot of things are going to happen. I wish the former president would actually debate though, I mean, I think if you’re going to stand for nomination, you should be able to stand on a stage to do it. I’m happy to debate him on your program, or if your network wants to host a debate in New Hampshire, South Carolina. But the idea that he can go and just read off the teleprompter for 45 minutes and then go back, you know, back home, that doesn’t cut it in Iowa. And that doesn’t cut it in a lot of these states. And so, let’s go. Get on the stage and let’s have the debate of ideas and I hope Donald Trump will be willing to do that.

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