Newsmax Makes DeSantis Watch Montage of Criticism: ‘Like a Badge of Honor’

Newsmax made Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis watch a montage of criticism towards him on cable news, Monday, to which DeSantis replied that he wears such criticism “like a badge of honor.”

During Newsmax’s town hall with DeSantis in Iowa, the network played a montage of criticism from “the left-wing media.”

In the montage, several people could be heard referring to DeSantis as “dangerous” and a “threat to democracy.”

“I think he’s functionally authoritarian,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom, while CNN host Van Jones remarked, “Ron DeSantis is worse than Donald Trump.”

As the audience laughed, DeSantis reacted:

I mean, I wear those criticisms like a badge of honor, but think about what some of these people are saying. You have the head of the national teacher’s union who sued Florida because we had schools open during Covid. She wanted to lock the kids out of school. How is that something that’s promoting freedom? You have Newsom, he imposed draconian mandates on his people. Far beyond, when it was obvious that they were destructive, he clung to it, he locked them down, and then he went and partied at the French Laundry, and basically telling everyone, “Let them eat cake.” So these folks, they don’t put their money where their mouth is. We’ve actually stood up and done things that have made people’s lives better.

DeSantis concluded, “People are moving into Florida because we’ve created an oasis of freedom. They’re leaving California, they’re leaving New York, and they’re leaving Illinois because those states have infringed on people’s wellbeing and their freedoms.”

Watch above via Newsmax.

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