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Newsmax host Sebastian Gorka waded into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis immediately after he appeared on another network program Thursday, labeling the interview “a bloody embarrassment.”
During Thursday’s episode of “The Balance,” host Eric Bolling posed a question to DeSantis, who is regarded as a potential presidential candidate for 2024. Bolling asked if DeSantis would be willing to become former President Donald Trump’s running mate in the event that he was chosen as the presidential nominee, according to Mediaite.
DeSantis indicated that he would not accept that.
“I think I’m probably more of an executive guy,” he replied. “I think that you wanna be able to do things. That’s part of the reason I got into this job, is because we have action. We’re able to make things happen, and I think that’s probably what I’m best suited for.”
After the interview was broadcast, Bolling invited Gorka onto the show, who commented on the governor’s response and highlighted DeSantis’s reaction to the possibility of Trump’s indictment in Manhattan.
“Let’s just say the governor of Florida has not showered himself in glory in the last four days,” Gorka responded. “Let’s remind everybody that President Trump is a resident of the state of Florida that he is governor of. He says nothing for 48 hours about the impending arrest of the 45th and potentially 47th, president of the United States. And then in a press conference on Monday on another topic, he’s asked, and he does this snarky thing twice, he has to talk about hush money for porn stars twice and get giggles from the peanut gallery.”
Gorka then brought up the governor’s recent interview with Piers Morgan on Fox Nation, describing it as “a bloody embarrassment.”
“And now he shows us how big his ego is with you and says, ‘Oh, VP? No, no, no. I’m an executive.’ I guess being the second in line to the presidency, it’s just not good enough for Ron,” Gorka continued.
Ron DeSantis has embarrassed himself all week.
Sebastian Gorka with @EricBolling pic.twitter.com/FWx24dgP9c
— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) March 24, 2023
DeSantis has not yet declared his intent to run for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, but he is widely expected to do so and political observers say his book tour and visits to early primary states in recent weeks are indicators that he will jump in.
Meantime, Trump’s other declared opponents are his former UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, who also served as governor of South Carolina, and tech business entrepreneur Vivik Ramaswamy.
As for Trump’s potential indictment, reports indicated on Thursday the grand jury did not meet and was dismissed by Bragg until at least next week.
A report from The Wall Street Journal details “chaos and last-minute shuffling within the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office,” adding that District Attorney Alvin Bragg is “scrambling” to indict Trump. The grand jurors who will eventually hear the Trump case did convene on Thursday, but discussed “another matter unrelated” to Trump.
“It is common for grand juries in New York to hear multiple cases at a time,” the Journal’s Corinne Ramey wrote. “Grand jury schedules can be unpredictable because panels juggle cases with competing demands and deadlines, former prosecutors said.”
The case involves Trump’s alleged role in hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, allegedly to keep Daniels quiet about an affair the two of them had in 2006.
Bragg responded on Thursday to a potential indictment and arrest of Trump and issued a vague statement that did not actually provide any information about what might happen next.
Bragg sent a letter to members of the House Judiciary Committee after they sent their own letter “demanding communications, documents, and testimony relating to Bragg’s unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority and the potential indictment of former President Donald Trump.”
In his letter, the Manhattan DA said his office will “publicly state the conclusion of our investigation—whether we conduct our work without bringing charges, or move forward with an indictment.”