'Is Donald Trump a threat to our democracy?' Ron DeSantis fails to answer question twice on 'Morning Joe'

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis refused to call Donald Trump a threat to US democracy on 'Morning Joe'
PUBLISHED JAN 14, 2024
Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough and Ron DeSantis on the January 11, 2024 episode of 'Morning Joe' (Screengrab/MSNBC)
Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough and Ron DeSantis on the January 11, 2024 episode of 'Morning Joe' (Screengrab/MSNBC)

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Florida Governor and Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis appeared on the January 11 episode of 'Morning Joe' to talk about his campaign with co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

While he criticized the former President and the current GOP front-runner Donald Trump during the conversation, he shirked away from calling his opponent a "threat" to the democracy of the United States, even when twice prompted by Brzezinski.

Ron DeSantis' first response

As Brzezinski directly asked the Governor if he felt Trump was a threat to democracy, Scarborough further pointed out that Trump's lawyers argued that "he could use SEAL Team 6 to execute, say, someone like you (DeSantis), one of his political opponents."

"Well, this idea of Presidential immunity has not ever been really vetted by the Supreme Court," began DeSantis, side-stepping the primary question.

"But, I think that admission by the lawyer, that statement, I think that lost him the case in the DC Circuit. So I think the DC Circuit is definitely going to rule against him," he noted.

"Then the question is, does the Supreme Court take that case," he continued, mentioning that he pointed out at the Republican Debate the previous night in Iowa that "going down this road where we are going with the legal issues, the trials, and the January 6 being the center of the election, we're giving the Democrats a huge advantage because those are the terms that the Democrats would love to fight the election on."

"It's not going to be good for Donald Trump, and then you may be in a situation where the fate of the Republican party is determined by a jury…in Washington DC. Is that really the direction we want to go with all this stuff? So we have a choice to make…" he added.

Mika Brzezinski reminds DeSantis of allegations against Trump

Referring to the reports of stolen documents, foreign funding, and the January 6 insurrection, the co-host once again repeated her initial question to DeSantis, which the latter deftly avoided for the second time.

"Here's what I'll say," he started a second time. "I think a lot of the rhetoric of Donald Trump… to me a lot of that is bluster. I mean, when he actually was in power, he had the opportunity to use valid constitutional authority to take the actions that conservatives wanted."

Mentioning Trump's claims of sending the military to crack down on crimes in the intercity, DeSantis stated that the former President could have sent in the National Guard during the "riot" over BLM, "but he chose not to do it."

"So I think some of it is rhetoric versus the actual reality, of being a strong versus a weak president. I wish he would have leaned in more on some of these issues that he promised to do and didn't."



 

MORE STORIES

After likening Trump’s immigration tactics to Nazi Germany, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker denied ever comparing him to Adolf Hitler
1 day ago
Melania Trump reportedly distanced herself from President Donald Trump’s East Wing renovation, privately questioning the historic demolition, WSJ reports
1 day ago
Donald Trump expressed willingness to work with Democrats while noting that the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, has 'been terrible'
3 days ago
Trump also brought up an incident from 30 years back when Mikie Sherrill was not allowed to participate in her graduation ceremony
4 days ago
Bernie Sanders said, 'So long as we have nation-states, you’ve got to have borders. If you don’t have any borders, then you don’t have a nation'
4 days ago
John Fetterman told Sean Hannity he’s fed up with his party painting Republicans, and especially Trump, as racists, Nazis, or fascists
7 days ago
George Santos says Zohran Mamdani's takeover of City Hall would turn New York City into a 'very dangerous place'
7 days ago
Chuck Schumer said that things are getting worse every day for the American people
Oct 22, 2025
Robert De Niro said Trump 'is not going to leave the White House' and urges Americans to 'strap on their balls and do something about it'
Oct 20, 2025
The new aircraft is to be used to replace an older plane flown by Kristi Noem
Oct 20, 2025