DeSantis: ‘I wish Trump hadn’t been indicted on any of this stuff.’

Ron DeSantis said in an interview aired Thursday that Donald Trump’s indictments “distorted the primary,” depriving competitors of attention.

"I would say if I could have one thing change, I wish Trump hadn't been indicted on any of this stuff. I mean, honestly, from Alvin Bragg on,” DeSantis said on Christian Broadcasting Network, referring to the Manhattan district attorney’s case that claims Trump falsified business records connected to hush money payments made to silence affair allegations from porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.

DeSantis, who has fallen back in the Republican presidential primary, told CBN “someone like a Bragg would not have brought that case if it was anyone other than Donald Trump and so someone like that is distorting justice, which is bad, but I also think it distorted the primary.”

Asked whether he thinks that helped Trump, the overwhelming frontrunner, DeSantis said, "It's both that but then it also just crowded out I think so much other stuff and it's sucked out a lot of oxygen.”

“I think for the primary, it distorted. Yeah, I think it distorted," DeSantis said during the CBN interview on the campaign trail in Iowa.

The Florida governor’s comments served to frame expectations as he scrambles to gain traction with just weeks to go before primary voting begins. He is not only running far behind Trump but is in a close race for second place with Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor.