President Joe Biden’s recent trip to Florida signaled the president might view Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as a likely 2024 contender.
Biden took aim at the Florida governor during his trip Thursday, bashing DeSantis’s position on Medicaid specifically. He alleged that DeSantis and other Florida Republicans, specifically Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), are trying to cut benefits for the poor.
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“Over 1.1 million people in Florida would be eligible for Medicaid if Gov. DeSantis just said, ‘I agree to expand it,’” Biden said, MarketWatch reported. “By the way, it’ll also keep rural hospitals open.”
“I guarantee [cutting Medicaid] will not happen,” Biden said, the New York Times reported. “A lot of Republicans, their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare. Well, let me say this: If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare.”
Despite traveling to Donald Trump’s home state, Biden and his team were quiet when it came to challenging the former president, who, unlike DeSantis, has declared he’ll be running next year.
Besides attacking DeSantis during his stop, Biden’s top communications staffers prepared reporters for the volley on the way down from Washington, D.C.
On Air Force One, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre criticized DeSantis, mocking his battle with Disney.
“I don’t know about you all, but I certainly would not get into a fight with Mickey Mouse,” she said, laughing. “I don’t think that would be the thing I would be doing.”
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“And I don’t think that’s what Gov. [Sarah Huckabee] Sanders, as you heard from her rebuttal — I don’t think that’s what she meant when she said there’s a choice between normal and crazy. So I’ll leave that there,” she added, referring to Sanders’s response to Biden’s State of the Union address.
The jabs at DeSantis reflect a possible preparation from the Biden administration to face the Florida governor in the 2024 general election. Though DeSantis hasn’t announced his candidacy, he is expected to do so this summer after Florida’s legislative session ends.
