‘No Pushback’: DeSantis Slams Fox News For Allowing ‘Massive Gaslighting’ From Trump During Town Hall

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) took aim at both former President Donald Trump and Fox News while on MSNBC Thursday morning discussing Trump’s town hall the night before.

MSNBC’s Morning Joe played a clip of Trump during the Fox town hall saying, “Florida did shut down. Ron DeSantis shut down, or as he’s known, Ron Desanctimonious. He shut his state down very violently, actually, and shut the highways down the roads down.”

After a quick discussion of the dynamics Wednesday night, where DeSantis and Nikki Haley debated on CNN and Trump participated in a town hall on Fox, host Joe Scarborough weighed in on Trump’s misleading statement.

“So, governor, thanks so much for being with us. We got, a lot happened yesterday. As you as you’re well aware, I’m just looking at this fact check from March 31st, 2020, and the headline is Trump praises Florida Governor uh, despite criticism of coronavirus response. He calls you a great governor. But I actually know a little bit about Florida. And from my memory, Donald Trump was actually attacking you, uh, back in 2020 for not shutting the state down more. Is that correct?” Scarborough asked.

“Look, I mean, Joe, this is the number one crisis he faced as president. Uh, and he chose to defer to Anthony Fauci. They were running commercials in October of 2020 for his reelection, bragging that he followed everything Fauci said. And then when Fauci, Donald Trump’s last day in office, he gave Fauci a commendation. He forcibly shut down Florida’s cruise industry. They shut down churches on military bases, and they were pressuring states,” DeSantis hit back, adding:

Remember when Brian Kemp reopened Georgia in April, Donald Trump, went to the white House podium and attacked him for doing that. He was saying schools should be closed. They attacked me in the summer of 2020, when Florida had his first Covid wave, and we had schools and businesses open. So it’s massive, massive gaslighting. Uh, he was able to do that, I guess, on Fox with no pushback. Uh, which was really, uh, well, I guess that’s just par for the course at this point. But the reality is he knew he dropped the ball on that.

Notably, DeSantis appeared on Fox News on Tuesday night for a town hall of his own.

“Yeah, yeah. Your campaign last night said, uh, and I’m sure your campaign won’t take this as a compliment. Uh, but your campaign said last night what we said today, that Fox Town hall meeting looked like Fox news is completely in the tank for Donald Trump. It looked like a commercial. A reelect commercial for Donald Trump,” Scarborough added.

“Yeah. I mean, you know, I did a town hall with them the day before. Um, and I had about, I think a half a dozen, uh, left wing plants and including people that rushed the stage when I was up there, which is fine. I mean, we roll with the punches, but, yeah, I don’t think that there were very many critical questions,” DeSantis said, adding:

And incidentally, we had a debate in Iowa at the same time he was invited. He could have gone. He’s not done any debates yet. I think it’s because he knows he can get away with that type of gaslighting in that venue. He knows he wouldn’t be able to get away with that if we were just on the debate stage.

And here’s the thing. He was bragging in 2020 that he shut down the greatest economy in the world. He used to say he saved millions of lives to do that. Now he knows Republican voters think that was a mistake, but he cannot admit that he made a mistake. And I think as a leader, uh, you know, if something doesn’t work, you course correct and voters, voters appreciate, it’s refreshing when you acknowledge that you got something wrong. Donald Trump just can’t do that.

Watch the full clip above via MSNBC.