Following Donald Trump’s absence from the second Republican Party primary debate held this week at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis challenged the former president for a one-on-one debate.
The comments were made by DeSantis during a interview following the two-hour debate with Fox News anchor Sean Hannity. On November 30 in Georgia, the 45-year-old is scheduled to face Gov. Gavin Newsom of California in a one-on-one Fox News discussion with Hannity.
“Let’s see since the former president wasn’t here, perhaps we could suggest that he would be open to doing one with you and me,” DeSantis said. “I believe he owes our voters a visit to make his case.”
“You are now challenging, which means this is going to be the central one-on-one Hannity debate?” Hannity replied.
“Let’s do it,” DeSantis said. “Let us do it. But here’s the thing: Trump owes the people a chance to make his case. No one is given anything. Sure, you can say, ‘Oh, there was a poll a few months ago.’ You have to make your case; the people expect it of you.”
“Therefore, I will appear everywhere,” he said. “I believe we had the chance to do that, and tonight we talked about some important issues. I know we’ve talked about other things as well that weren’t brought up. However, I believe that the most obvious thing about this is that a lot of people talk about it and have positive things to say. I’m the one who did it. We did everything I said we would do in Florida.”
Also, during the debate, DeSantis criticized Trump for not being there and said that he has been “missing in action.”
“He has an obligation to defend his record, as they contributed $7.8 trillion to the debt, which created the conditions for the current inflation,” DeSantis continued.
