DeSantis jabs at McCarthy on ‘red wave,’ debt

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) doubled down his jab at Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday. 

The presidential candidate, appearing on Fox Business Network, responded to Sunday’s comments made by McCarthy — who said former President Trump’s endorsement enabled DeSantis to win the governor’s race — by once again slamming the California Republican.

DeSantis pointed to the underperformance of the predicted “red wave” during the 2022 midterm elections and contrasted that with the electoral success of Florida. 

“I ran 16 points better than Trump in Florida,” DeSantis told host Stuart Varney on Tuesday morning. “I won the greatest victory that’s ever been won by a Republican in the history of governor’s races. We were supposed to have a red wave in 2022. That crashed and burned around the country. Florida, we did. We delivered them four additional Republican congressmen; that was instrumental in getting them the bare majority that they have.”  

DeSantis also drew a contrast between McCarthy’s Congress and Florida on debt.

“Since Kevin’s been in Congress, they’ve added trillions and trillions of dollars to the debt, even when we had unified Republican government,” he said. “Since I’ve been governor of Florida, we’ve actually paid down almost 25 percent of our total state debt. We’ve won budget surpluses every year. And we have the top-rated economy in the entire United States.”

DeSantis’s response mimics his remarks during Monday’s press conference in Jacksonville, where he said McCarthy would have won the gavel without Trump and that both McCarthy and Trump were responsible for bloating the national debt. 

McCarthy dismissed the Florida governor during his interview with Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo. 

“President Trump is beating Biden right now in the polls,” the Speaker said. “He is stronger than he has ever been in this process, and, look, I served with Ron DeSantis — he’s not at the same level as President Trump by any shape or form. He would not have gotten elected without President Trump’s endorsement.”