Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) reaffirmed he would support former President Trump if Trump becomes the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee, calling back to the party loyalty pledge he signed to participate in debates.
“I signed a pledge,” DeSantis said in an MSNBC interview Thursday. “That pledge is what it is.”
But the governor also said a candidate who is convicted of a crime shouldn’t be nominated by Republicans in the first place and noted he believes voters will agree.
Trump faces multiple criminal trials in the coming months, including a pair of federal trials over his actions surrounding the 2020 election and an alleged hoarding of classified documents.
“That will not happen,” DeSantis said of Trump being nominated. “I think Republican voters will understand that as we get closer to voting.”
“It would be fatal in a general election,” he continued, referring to a possible criminal conviction for Trump. “I don’t think the party should nominate in that situation.”
Recent polls show Trump holding onto a wide lead over other GOP presidential candidates, and DeSantis is losing ground to former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley for second place.
According to national polling averages, Trump has about 59 percent support to DeSantis’s 13 percent. That’s a stark drop from DeSantis’s support when he officially entered the race in the summer, when it held at about 20 percent.
Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley made similar comments during an appearance on “The Daily Show” on Wednesday evening.
She also referenced the loyalty pledge, and noted that any of the GOP candidates were preferable to a second term for President Biden.
“We all signed a pledge saying that we would vote for the nominee,” Haley said. “We can’t keep living this way. We can’t do that.”
“I’ll tell you right now, at this point, anybody would be better than Joe Biden, but it’s going to be me,” she continued. “And I’m going to make sure that we go and do what we need to to get American families back on track again.”