(Headline USA) California Gov. Gavin Newsom claimed on Thursday that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis saved his career by dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.
Newsom, who has sparred with DeSantis for the past couple of years, frequently mocked the governor for trying to unseat former President Donald Trump for the GOP nomination.
He argued during an interview with MSNBC that one of the reasons DeSantis’s campaign did ultimately fall flat was because DeSantis was trying to force himself into a particular mold.
But since dropping out of the race, DeSantis has become relatable, Newsom said, citing a recent video that DeSantis posted of his young son’s NFL playoff predictions.
“Just on a humanizing level, having spent a tiny bit of time with him but obviously studying him for some time, he’s a different guy,” Newsom told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner. “Now I saw him with his kid on a video, I’m like ‘who’s that guy?’”
On the campaign trail, DeSantis was “so wound up” and “joyless,” Newsom said.
“And you know, you can say what you want about Trump. He seems a little less wound up,” Newsom continued. “He is winding up in terms of his rhetoric but a little more entertaining in that respect. You have got to know your why. I never felt like he [DeSantis] had a why.”
The California governor went on to take a victory lap, saying Trump’s domination in the GOP primary was inevitable.
“The premise of it is rather—I don’t mean this as a cheap shot—rather delusional,” he said. “Maybe you didn’t think he was going to run, maybe you thought he was going to be convicted earlier for a crime—I don’t know what they were thinking, but it was so predictable. All of this was predictable.”
Newsom also suggested that GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley should drop out, saying, “I don’t know any state she can win, let alone her own state [of South Carolina].”
