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George Conway doesn’t think Ron DeSantis will run for president.
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Conway said he did not see any upside for DeSantis to wade into a “mud fest” with Trump.
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He said it’s more likely that DeSantis, who is 44, could run in 2028.
Lawyer and political pundit George Conway said he does not think Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will run for president against Donald Trump in 2024.
In an appearance on MSNBC on Sunday, Conway said he thought DeSantis would reconsider a 2024 run since any fight with the former president would be “brutal.”
“The way you take on Trump is to go after him hammer and tong, and Trump is going to go right back,” said Conway, a political commentator married to Trump aide Kellyanne Conway. “It’s going to be the mud fest to end all mud fests. And for DeSantis, I don’t see what the upside is for him to do that.”
“Even if DeSantis does succeed in knocking off Trump, he will end up with some significant percentage of the Republican base angry at him,” he said.
Conway said that DeSantis, at 44, is young enough to wait for an opportune moment, rather than go into an all-out slugfest against Trump during the 2024 election cycle.
“He’s rational, unlike Trump,” Conway said.
Conway added that he thought the newly re-elected Florida governor would continue to raise money and build a “massive war chest.” He speculated that DeSantis will leave open the possibility of running, then wait until the 2028 race to become the “leading candidate” for the GOP.
Trump and DeSantis are currently the leading contenders for the 2024 Republican presidential ticket, though neither has announced a run for the presidency.
Even so, Trump has already started attacking DeSantis, drawing potential battle lines for the 2024 GOP nomination.
Last week, Trump unleashed a tirade on DeSantis, calling him an “average Republican governor.” He also accused DeSantis of being disloyal and referred to him by a new nickname, “Ron DeSanctimonious.”
Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway said in September that the former president is eager to announce his 2024 run soon. At a rally on November 5, Trump teased that an announcement would be coming in a “very, very, very short period of time.”
As for DeSantis, in a debate in October, he did not commit to serving four full years as Florida’s governor. A DeSantis representative told Insider in July that the governor is “focused on Florida and running for reelection as governor this year.”
Representatives for DeSantis and aides at Trump’s post-presidential press office did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
Read the original article on Business Insider
