Fox’s Varney Confronts DeSantis Over GOP Megadonor Who Dumped Him Over Campaign Struggles

Fox Business’ Stuart Varney questioned Ron DeSantis on the fact that one of the Florida governor’s biggest previous financial backers is no longer supporting his run for president.

Varney interviewed DeSantis on Tuesday about the state of the GOP primary as well as the news that Ken Griffin, the billionaire CEO of Citadel LLC hedge fund, is not planning any further contributions to his campaign. Griffin donated millions to a PAC last year to financially support DeSantis’ gubernatorial reelection, but in an interview with CNBC, Griffin announced he’s sitting “on the sidelines” for now — out of dissatisfaction with DeSantis and the rest of the primary field.

“He’s been one of your principal backers,” Varney noted as he brought this up to DeSantis. “Have you talked to him? Have you tried to talk him out of sitting on the sidelines?”

DeSantis said “no” he hadn’t spoken to Griffin, and he turned his attention to the part of the interview where Griffin criticized him over his legal war with Disney.

The idea that we are going to allow a company to come in and try to wreak havoc on our education system, injecting transgender ideology in elementary school, negating parents’ rights, that is non-negotiable for me. We will stand up for our kids, we will stand up for our parents and, yes, they’re the granddaddy of them all when it comes to Florida politics, but I’m happy to stand in the way of that and push back.

If we can’t get the education right, if we can’t agree as a society that it’s wrong to tell a second grader that they can change genders, then this country is just not going to succeed. So I see our country in decline on a variety of fronts, including in education. We’ve reversed that decline in Florida, and yes, we’ve had to stand up to Disney to do it, but that was the right thing to do, and I stand by it 100 percent.

Watch above via Fox Business.

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com