DeSantis regrets anti-media strategy: 'I should have gone on everything'

MIAMI — Ron DeSantis wishes he could have a do-over with the media.

In an interview Thursday with radio host Hugh Hewitt, the Florida governor expressed regret over how his presidential campaign had initially shunned most news outlets in favor of friendly, conservative platforms.

“I came in not really doing as much media,” DeSantis said. “I should have just been blanketing. I should have gone on all the corporate shows. I should have gone on everything.”

His admission was an unusual moment of self-reflection for the governor, who frequently derides the mainstream media as biased against him. But DeSantis is struggling to keep his presidential campaign alive after placing second in Iowa, roughly 30 points behind former President Donald Trump. He’s set to reach only single digits in New Hampshire, should the polls bear out, and is focusing his strategy on trying to make inroads in South Carolina, even though most polls show him trailing Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

DeSantis’ distaste with certain mainstream outlets dates back years, and was first expressed publicly in “Dreams from Our Founding Fathers,” his 2011 book about the Constitution and federalist papers. In his book, he accused the media of having a liberal bias. His relationship with the media became especially frayed during the Covid pandemic when he received backlash from news outlets for bucking federal guidance that urged him to keep schools and businesses closed.

At the start of his presidential campaign, DeSantis reserved his one-on-one interviews for conservative outlets but then changed his strategy over the summer as he fell far behind Trump in the polls and as he was forced to cut campaign staff due to overspending. Last week, DeSantis turned on conservative outlets — especially Fox News — accusing the network of being insufficiently critical of Trump to please their audiences. He has lamented for months that it has been hard for him to break through given the saturated coverage around Trump’s many court hearings.

In Florida, DeSantis would often take questions from state and local media at press conferences, generally evoking a combative tone that pleased attendees but also allowed him to answer off-topic questions that would get him headlines in national outlets.

In recent months, he has appeared on nearly every major network — both for one-on-one interviews and town halls — and accepted every debate invitation, while Trump shunned every debate. Haley also turned down the most recent debates in New Hampshire that were set for this week. Haley paused taking questions from members of the audience at her campaign stops lately, though she’s doing a CNN town hall on Thursday night.

“We had an opportunity, I think, to come out of the gate and do that and reach a much broader folk,” DeSantis told Hewitt Thursday. “Now, I’m everywhere. I mean, I’ll show up wherever.”

“I’m the only one that’s not at this point running a basement campaign,” he continued. “Biden’s running a basement campaign. Trump won’t debate, won’t take questions from voters. And now, Haley won’t debate and won’t take questions from voters.”