DeSantis slams Trump and Biden after Republican debate

Fresh off the second Republican presidential debate, Ron DeSantis is going into attack mode.

The morning after the debate, the Florida governor took issue with President Joe Biden's new campaign ad that spliced together snippets of DeSantis' debate performance in which he called out former President Donald Trump for his absence on the debate stages. It ends with Biden saying he approves this message.

DeSantis clapped back on X, formerly known as Twitter: “When I'm the nominee, I'll make you climb out of your basement, accept responsibility, and defend your failed record, @JoeBiden.”

DeSantis also had his sights on Trump, digging even further into Trump’s absence on the debate stage by saying in a Fox News interview that Trump should “defend why is he running on the same program in 2016 that he did not actually implement.”

“He has had a lot to say about me on social media since 2022 — right before the midterm election, he started attacking me when we were supposed to be united to a red wave,” DeSantis said. “[It's] one thing to do it behind the keyboard. Do it to my face. I'm ready for it. You used to say I'm a great governor. Now you say the opposite. Let's have the discussion. We can do it one-on-one.”

The digs come after DeSantis failed to create a viral, memorable moment at Wednesday night’s debate — or even one at the August debate. Instead, DeSantis appeared only to be going off rehearsed riffs.

DeSantis was seen as Trump’s top potential Republican challenger when he first announced his presidential run in May, but his poll numbers have only fallen since then — both nationally and in early-voting states. DeSantis ranked fifth place in a CNN/University of New Hampshire poll released this month. A recent Wall Street Journal poll showed Trump’s lead over DeSantis has nearly doubled since April.

“Polls don’t elect presidents, voters elect presidents,” DeSantis said Wednesday night.