Donald Trump Jr. blasted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for failing to immediately raise his hand when asked if he would support former President Donald Trump even if he gets convicted, telling Breitbart News Saturday, “Ron’s not capable of making a decision.”
During Wednesday night’s debate, Fox News moderator Bret Baier asked the eight Republican primary candidates if they would “still support” Trump as their party’s choice even if he is convicted in a court of law.
Anti-woke businessman Vivek Ramaswamy was the first candidate to raise his hand, and others — South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — followed. DeSantis, who stood next to Ramaswamy, first looked around, then raised his hand. It was a visibly delayed response, garnering criticism across the board.
“Ron’s not capable of making a decision,” Donald Trump Jr. asserted. “He was looking for his donors, or maybe he was looking for his consultant, Jeff Roe, who’s made $50 million off of him this cycle just racking up money. They’re not going to do anything different.”
Republican presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis participates in the first debate of the GOP primary season hosted by FOX News at the Fiserv Forum on August 23, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images).
Former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley raise their hands in response to a question if they would support the eventual party nominee during a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by FOX News Channel Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023, in Milwaukee (AP Photo/Morry Gash).
“He couldn’t answer the most basic question or read the room. He had to look around and see what people are doing. That’s the difference,” Don Jr. said, explaining that this has been one of his main critiques of DeSantis: he does not have it, and cannot read the room.
“I spent three weeks on the road with Ron DeSantis in ’18 to get him elected. I’ve opened for him literally dozens of times. Like you see him in long form, it’s not there. He can’t read the room. He can’t figure out what’s going on. It’s the same canned response,” he said, adding that DeSantis’s interruption of Baier seemed “like a staged interruption, like a consultant told him, ‘You have to seem like you’re aggressive Ron, so get in there.'”
Don Jr. gave Vivek Ramaswamy credit for calling out DeSantis, as well.
“Ron is not capable of those things. He’s not capable of spontaneity. He needs someone to give him…and that’s why Vivek called him out. And he’s like, ‘Yeah, Ron, which way is the wind blowing this time? Oh, yeah. Okay.’ I mean, these are basic things in a Republican primary,” he said, adding that the delayed hand response by DeSantis even irked donors.
Republican presidential candidates (L-R), former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy participate in the first debate of the GOP primary season hosted by FOX News at the Fiserv Forum on August 23, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images).
“I could read the room, when that happened when he wavered, and he’s looking around, and the hands went up. … You could hear the groan in the room. It was like, it was legitimately palpable. Like all the donors that have been banking on him trying to gain back the power because they want a puppet that they can control. And they knew he’d be that guy,” he said.
“You know, Fox News desperately trying to, they go right to the DeSantis ad and then ‘DeSantis won, DeSantis coming up with Trump in the polls.’ Like literally none of that’s been reflected anywhere–anywhere, and I see all of the polls. That’s what I do at this point,” he continued. “You know, they’re all pushing for that. Even that room stacked for Ron DeSantis, they’re all like, ‘Oh, boy.'”
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“Even in a donor thing, there’s still some grassroots people in there. All of them, they get it. They saw it, and I think it’s over,” he added.
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. Eastern.