Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of many two remaining challengers to former President Donald Trump, dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday, earlier than the New Hampshire main, and endorsed Trump.
In a video DeSantis launched from Florida on Sunday afternoon, he endorsed Trump during the last challenger—former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley—saying that whereas he has disagreements with Trump he thinks Trump is healthier than Haley and definitely higher than Democrat President Joe Biden.
Watch the video right here:
“Success will not be last, failure will not be deadly: it’s the braveness to proceed that counts.”
– Winston Churchill pic.twitter.com/ECoR8YeiMm
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) January 21, 2024
Within the video, DeSantis mentioned that after his second-place end in Iowa–he completed forward of Haley however far behind Trump–he and his household and group have “prayed and deliberated on the best way ahead.”
“If there was something I may do to supply a good consequence — extra marketing campaign stops, extra interviews — I might do it,” DeSantis mentioned. “However I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their assets if we don’t have a transparent path to victory. Accordingly, I’m right now suspending my marketing campaign.”
Seconds later, DeSantis formally endorsed Trump.
“It’s clear to me {that a} majority of Republican main voters wish to give Donald Trump one other probability,” DeSantis mentioned. “They watched his presidency get stymied by relentless resistance and so they see Democrats utilizing lawfare to today to assault him. Whereas I’ve had disagreements with Donald Trump, corresponding to on the coronavirus pandemic and his elevation of Anthony Fauci, Trump is superior to the present incumbent, Joe Biden. That’s clear. I signed a pledge to assist the Republican nominee and I’ll honor that pledge. He has my endorsement as a result of we will’t return to the previous Republican guard of yesteryear — a repackaged type of warmed-over corporatism — that Nikki Haley represents. The times of placing People final, of kowtowing to giant companies, of caving to woke ideology, are over.”
Prime Republicans near Trump are starting to react to the information as properly, with Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)–an early Trump endorser who simply this weekend on Breitbart Information Saturday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel known as on DeSantis and Haley to drop out so Republicans can unify behind Trump–praising DeSantis for the transfer:
Good on @RonDeSantis for permitting us to unify. Your flip, @NikkiHaley.
The @GOP should unite round @realDonaldTrump to defeat Joe Biden.
— Marsha Blackburn (@VoteMarsha) January 21, 2024
Blackburn was certainly one of many pushing the unity name this weekend:
The @GOP should unite round @realDonaldTrump.https://t.co/1OXrCCGRt9
— Marsha Blackburn (@VoteMarsha) January 20, 2024
DeSantis’s exit from the race leaves one remaining severe challenger to Trump within the discipline: Haley. Issues between Trump and Haley have been intensifying forward of New Hampshire’s GOP main on Tuesday, and a powerful Trump efficiency there–as polls point out is probably going–may end her off shortly and early, earlier than the race turns subsequent to Nevada after which to South Carolina. Haley will not be even going to compete within the Nevada caucuses, which implies DeSantis’s exit from the sphere primarily ensures a unanimous Trump victory there as just one different candidate–Ryan Binkley, who acquired barely extra votes than former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson in Iowa’s caucuses–is competing in Nevada. What this all means is Tuesday’s New Hampshire main primarily turns into do-or-die for Haley, in that she should defeat Trump and win the first outright to have a path ahead for her marketing campaign.
That growth is dangerous information for Haley’s prospects given the truth that her high Granite State surrogate Gov. Chris Sununu has been publicly aggressively decreasing expectations for Haley there, arguing that her ending in second place is sweet for her. That’s clearly now not the case, and the potential of a path for anybody to cease Trump from profitable the GOP nomination and wrapping it up very quickly is changing into primarily non-existent at this stage.
