(CNN) Breaking his silence on Donald Trump’s legal troubles, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday criticized the Manhattan district attorney pursuing charges against the former president and vowed that his office would not get involved if the matter came to Trump’s adopted home state.
But DeSantis, a rising contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, stopped short of offering support for the former president and instead seemed to mock the situation Trump finds himself in as he tries to return to politics and a third campaign for White. House. A grand jury is in the final stages of determining whether Trump should face charges over an alleged payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels related to an alleged affair.
“I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence on some kind of alleged affair,” said DeSantis when laughter broke out in a press conference in Panama City, Florida. “It’s just me, I can’t say that.”
DeSantis added: “I have real issues to deal with here in the state of Florida.”
The dismissive quips then traveled across the state to Mar-a-Lago, where Trump is decamping as he awaits word of the New York grand jury’s findings. His allies immediately began attacking DeSantis across social media, suggesting he would face a political price for failing to recognize the Republicans rallying around Trump amid of his mounting legal threats.
Trump responded in a statement posted on his social media site, Truth Social, leveling a series of personal attacks against DeSantis.
“Ron DeSanctimonious might find out about FALSE ACCUSATIONS & FAKE STORIES in the future, as he gets older, wiser, and better known, if he is unfairly and illegally assaulted by a woman, even his ‘underage’ classmates ( or possibly someone!). I’m sure he wants to fight these misfits as much as I do!” Trump wrote.
As part of the post, Trump also shared a photo suggesting DeSantis behaved inappropriately with teenage girls while teaching Georgia history in his 20s, an image the former president shared on social media to follow the governor of Florida.
Monday’s episode depicted the escalating rivalry between two of the GOP’s biggest stars as they battle for party supremacy — one made all the more awkward by their proximity within the Sunshine State. Trump suggested his arrest was imminent, and if he was in Florida at the time, it might require a coordinated effort by DeSantis’ state police.
DeSantis said he was not aware of any local law enforcement arrangements regarding Trump, and he said he “has no interest in participating in some kind of manufactured circus.”
DeSantis’ delayed remarks were in stark contrast to the vigorous defense he offered for Trump in August when federal authorities seized documents from the former president’s Palm Beach estate. Just hours after the attack, DeSantis took to Twitter to call the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago “another development in the arming of federal agencies against the regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden are treated with kid gloves.”
But there has been no such tweet this time from DeSantis, who has remained silent for days amid reports that a New York grand jury is interviewing witnesses and has largely avoided mentioning Trump amid growing attacks from the former president and his allies. Instead, DeSantis last week held activities focused on comforting victims of Hurricane Ian and the pandemic. He posted a photo from the World Baseball Classic picture standing next to the Miami Marlins mascot.
Over the weekend, as some Republicans criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, for pursuing charges in a case that dates back to the 2016 election, Trump’s allies engaged in a coordinated pressure campaign to get DeSantis to defend the former. president
“Thank you, Vice President @Mike_Pence and @VivekGRamaswamy, for pointing out how Radical Left Democrats are trying to divide our Nation in the name of Partisan Politics,” Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller wrote on Twitter. “Radio silence from Gov. @RonDeSantisFL and Amb. @NikkiHaley.”
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., wrote in a tweet on Sunday: “Pay attention to which Republicans are speaking out against this rotten BS immediately and who are sitting on their hands and waiting to see whichever way the wind blows.”
MAGA, Inc sent several emails tracking where Republicans commented on potential criminal charges and blasted DeSantis for “remaining silent.” Trump’s allies acknowledged that it was a concerted effort to force DeSantis to weigh in on the matter, believing he should give Trump support.
When DeSantis finally weighed in Monday, it came at an unrelated press conference about central bank digital currencies, a new area of concern for some conservatives but almost not the topic of the day, given the revelations about Trump’s legal case. He did not address Trump’s legal status until asked by an individual from the Florida Standard, a conservative website friendly to DeSantis.
DeSantis echoed other criticisms of Bragg, accusing the Democrat of seeking charges against Trump for political reasons. He compared Bragg to Tampa’s local state’s attorney, Andrew Warren, who was controversially fired by DeSantis last year over his politics, and linked them both to George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire and progressive donor who is always at the center of conservative conspiracies.
“If you have a prosecutor who ignores the crimes that are happening every day in his jurisdiction, and he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to use something about paying money for porn star, you know, that’s an example of pursuing a political agenda and arming the office, and I think that’s fundamentally wrong,” DeSantis said.
But DeSantis also seemed to downplay Bragg’s pursuit of Trump as a minor concern compared to the city’s crime-related issues.
“That’s bad, but the real victims are ordinary New Yorkers, ordinary Americans in all the different jurisdictions that they victimize every day because of the reckless political agenda that the Soros DAs bring to their work,” he said. “They ignore crime and they empower criminals.”
Haley weighed in later Monday, saying a prosecution of Trump would be “for political points.” The former South Carolina governor, who announced his White House campaign last month, told Fox News’ Bret Baier, “And I think what we know is that when you get into political prosecutions like this , it’s more about revenge than justice.”
“I think the country is better off talking about things that concern the American public than sitting there and having to deal with some retaliation by some political people in New York,” Haley added. , who served as ambassador to the United Nations under. Trump.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Kit Maher and Brian Rokus contributed to this report.