Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has sidestepped a question on whether ex-President Donald Trump "violated the peaceful transfer of power" following his loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
DeSantis, Trump's top GOP opponent in the 2024 presidential election, demurred when a high school student asked him a question about the peaceful transfer of power being "a key principle of American democracy" during a town hall-style campaign event in Hollis, New Hampshire, on Tuesday.
After being asked to comment on the implications of Trump's actions leading up to the January 6 Capitol attack, the governor argued that Republicans would lose in 2024 if they were "re-litigating things that happened two, three years ago" and boasted about his own reelection in 2022.
"I can tell you this ... we had a transition of power from my first administration to my second 'cause I won reelection in a historic fashion," DeSantis said. "And at the end of the day, you know, we need to win and we need to get this done."
"I wasn't anywhere near Washington that day," he added. "I have nothing to do with what happened that day. Obviously, I didn't enjoy seeing, you know, what happened. But we've gotta go forward on this stuff. We cannot be looking backwards and be mired in the past."
DeSantis also took aim at Trump after being asked why he would be better able to "drain the swamp" than the former president. The governor recalled past Trump rallies while criticizing the ex-president for failing to fulfill his campaign promises and not acting to "lock up" former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after taking office in 2017.
"I remember these rallies in 2016," said DeSantis. "It was exciting. 'Drain the swamp!' I also remember, 'lock her up, lock her up!' Right? And then two weeks after the election [Trump said], 'oh forget about it, forget I ever said that.'"
"One thing you'll get from me: If I tell you I'm going to do something, I'm not just saying that for an election," he continued. "We didn't drain [the swamp]. Its worse today than it's ever been, by far ... I want to break the swamp."
Newsweek has reached out to the Trump campaign via email for comment.
Trump, who frequently refers to DeSantis as "Ron DeSanctimonious" or "DeSanctus," held his own campaign event in New Hampshire on Tuesday, speaking to a Republican women's group a little over 30 miles away, in Concord.
The ex-president said that DeSantis' decision to hold an event in the same state as him and on the same day was "considered not nice," while boasting about his polling numbers and mocking the governor, claiming that "nobody showed up" to his event.
"In New Hampshire, we have a 47 percent [lead over] DeSanctimonious, with 13 percent," said Trump. "He's holding an event right now, which is considered not nice. You know, because candidates go through, it's not really nice."
"But he's holding an event right now to compete with us," he continued. "There's only one problem: Nobody showed up. So he's having a little problem explaining that."
