CUMMING, Iowa — Florida is exploring whether it can remove President Joe Biden from its primary ballot for his response to the migration crisis after Maine’s secretary of state took action against former President Donald Trump over the Jan. 6 riot at the United States Capitol, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
“To have one election official decide that somebody is guilty of, quote, ‘insurrection,’ when there has not been a criminal conviction of anybody, much less the candidate himself, that opens up Pandora’s box,” DeSantis told reporters Friday in Cumming, Iowa. “I’m actually looking at this in Florida now. Could we make a credible case that Biden [should be removed] because of the invasion of 8 million [migrants]?”
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DeSantis underscored that he was against “tit-for-tat” political reactions but that he was also against “fighting with one hand tied behind your back” after the Colorado Supreme Court removed Trump from its state’s primary ballot.
“Whatever the rules are applied to us, we’re going to fight back and apply the rules the other way,” he said. “I do think the U.S. Supreme Court is going to have to take the case. I do think they’re going to have to rein this in because I just think, if you look at it, it just becomes too different.”
When asked by reporters what he would have done differently on Jan. 6, 2021, DeSantis joked that he would “have won the election, and it would never been an issue.” He argued Trump exacerbated the problem by supporting the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, which, in part, helped people vote by mail.
“Republican voters should think about this,” the governor said. “I know it’s a big issue that the media likes to talk about; the Left likes to talk about it: [If] Trump’s the candidate, 2024 is going to focus on his legal issues, criminal trials, Jan. 6, and really all these things from the past, and that’s going to subsume everything.”
“That is not the way Republicans drive a good message to be able to get a majority of the Electoral College, win the Congress, and then win the Senate,” he added. “Trump would be spiking the football if someone else got taken off the ballot; Trump would be willing to use this lawfare against other people. That’s just a fact.”
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Voters additionally asked DeSantis questions about Jan. 6 before this Saturday’s third anniversary, with the governor describing it as a Trump-encouraged demonstration that “devolved into a riot.” He told the crowd that the former president’s allies tried to weaponize the government against him by filing “a bogus ethics complaint with the Florida Election Commission.”
“They actually asked to have me removed from office as governor,” he said. “So, if any of his competitors had been taken off the ballot, Trump would be spiking the football; let’s just be clear about this.”
