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Donald Trump says he "sent in the FBI" to stop Ron DeSantis losing election
This is the first time the former president has made any mention of apparently stopping the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election from being "stolen."
www.newsweek.com
Donald Trump has claimed that he stopped Ron DeSantis from losing his 2018 gubernatorial election by sending in federal agents to prevent the race being rigged by voter fraud.
The latest unsubstantiated claims of election fraud pushed by the former president arrive as Trump continues to attack DeSantis in the wake of the GOP's poor midterm performance, with many conservative figures now believing the Florida governor should lead the party heading into 2024.
In a lengthy statement posted on his social media website Truth Social on Thursday evening, Trump described "Ron DeSanctimonious"—his new nickname for the governor—as an "average" Republican who was "politically dead" when he came to him for help to beat Florida's agriculture commissioner, Adam Putnam, in the GOP primary for governor.
Trump then took credit for DeSantis beating Democrat Andrew Gillum in the 2018 gubernatorial election by holding "two massive rallies" in support of DeSantis and fixing his campaign, which the former president said "had completely fallen apart."
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Donald Trump introduces Florida Governor Ron DeSantis during a homecoming campaign rally at the BB&T Center on November 26, 2019 in Sunrise, Florida.JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES
Trump also claims, without evidence, that he helped DeSantis' 2018 election from being "stolen" by sending the FBI and prosecutors to investigate apparent voter fraud.
"I was all in for Ron, and he beat Gillum, but after the Race, when votes were being stolen by the corrupt Election process in Broward County, and Ron was going down ten thousand votes a day, along with now-Senator Rick Scott, I sent in the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win. I stopped his Election from being stolen," Trump said.
DeSantis beat Gillum in 2018 by 4,076,186 votes to 4,043,723, a margin of just 0.4 percent of the total ballots cast.
Elsewhere in the statement, Trump accused DeSantis of "playing games" about his future plans within the party.
"The Fake News asks him if he's going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, 'I'm only focused on the Governor's race, I'm not looking into the future.' Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that's really not the right answer," the former president wrote.
