Psaki to DeSantis amid sagging campaign: ‘Are you OK, governor?’

Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday said she was puzzled by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) recent presidential campaign shakeup, asking him “are you OK?”

“So lately as I’ve been watching the way Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is running his presidential campaign, there is a question that has been running through my mind: Are you okay, governor? I mean, for real, are you good?” Psaki, who also serves as a host on MSNBC, said. “It’s okay. If you don’t actually want to run for president. It’s completely okay.”

Her remarks come as DeSantis’s presidential campaign laid off more than 30 staff members earlier this month — to about one-third of his team — in an effort to reorganize amid its struggle to meet fundraising expectations. The campaign claimed it was also an effort to “streamline operations and put him in the strongest position to win this primary and defeat Joe Biden.”

Psaki went on to question DeSantis’s spending habits, including taking trips across the U.S. to campaign for the White House.

“It turns out until recently, at least, he was burning through money like a teen pop star with a new record deal. For anyone who doesn’t follow that, it’s quite quickly,” she said. “But this whole spending issue was apparently news to Ron DeSantis.”

“Now here’s the thing, DeSantis and his wife have been crisscrossing the country on a private plane [and] private jets spending more than a million dollars on air travel,” she argued. “I mean, did they walk onto that plane and think those jets were free or something?”

DeSantis has also come under increased scrutiny this week for his comments on the Florida Department of Education’s new guidelines for teaching Black history, which suggested students be taught that enslaved people “developed skills” for personal benefit.

Fellow GOP candidate Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) took aim at DeSantis on Thursday, arguing “there is no silver lining in slavery.”

“Slavery was really about separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives. It was just devastating,” he added.

The former spokeswoman for President Biden responded to Scott’s comments, noting “even the standards of conservative culture wars … didn’t buy into it.”

“It sparked one of the first attacks this primary cycle from the friendly and mild mannered Republican candidate Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina,” Psaki said.

“This one’s for you, Tim Scott, we know you have it in you,” she quipped. “Now. We know you’re not just nice. Don’t stop with DeSantis.”