Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is in a bit of a bind these days: If he wants to win the Republican presidential nomination, he apparently has to attack former president Donald Trump.
And that’s exactly what happened after Wednesday’s GOP debate, which featured a moment where DeSantis attacked Trump for being “missing in action” at the primary debates and for massively increasing the national debt.
“He should be on this stage tonight,” DeSantis told the crowd to applause. “He owes it to you to defend his record where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt. That set the stage for the inflation that we have now.”
It was an effective moment for DeSantis. So effective that Biden quickly turned it into a Biden-Harris campaign ad, which was posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the caption, “That’s right.”
DeSantis wasn’t happy that his no-doubt workshopped attack on Trump was used by, ugh, a Democrat, and he let the leader of the free world know it with a sharply worded post on X that verged on “snotty”:
“Your reckless spending poured gasoline on the inflation fire, turbocharging the rising costs that are hurting the American people.
“When I’m the nominee, I’ll make you climb out of your basement, accept responsibility, and defend your failed record, @JoeBiden.
“And when I’m President, I will put an end to this bloated spending that is shutting down the American Dream.”
However, since all is fair in love and war (and reusing an opponent’s words to support your own campaign is quite funny), DeSantis’ gripe was thoroughly mocked.