DeSantis Only Caught a ‘Little Bit’ Of Trump’s Arraignment Because ‘We Had an Execution Yesterday’

AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) spoke to reporters on the campaign trail on Friday and raised eyebrows by both disavowing Donald Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy theories and offering a unique explanation for why he didn’t watch the former president’s Thursday arraignment.

DeSantis spoke with reporters after a campaign event at a brewery in northeast Iowa, reported the New York Times, and took his strongest stance yet against Trump’s so-called “big lie.”

“It was not an election that was conducted the way I think that we want to, but that’s different than saying Maduro stole votes or something like that,” DeSantis said about Trump’s allegations that voting machines may have rigged the outcome. “Those theories, you know, proved to be unsubstantiated.”

Trump continues to lead DeSantis in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, including by an average 27 points in Iowa, according to RealClearPolitics.

DeSantis was also pressed on whether or not he followed the extensive, wall-to-wall, news coverage Thursday of Trump’s D.C. surrender, where he was officially charged with four counts related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

“I saw a little bit,” replied the Florida governor. “Unfortunately, one of the things as governor that you have to do is oversee executions. So we had an execution yesterday, so I was tied up with that for most of the day.”

Florida executed James Barnes on Thursday for murdering a woman in 1988. He also confessed to killing his estranged wife in 1997.

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