DeSantis declines to address 2024 chatter: ‘People just need to chill out a little bit’
TALLAHASSEE — The governor wouldn’t say if he had spoken to any members of the Republican National Committee about putting off a trip to the nation’s capital until 2022 for a presidential campaign, but he did provide what he called a “clarification” in an interview.
“I have not spoken to any of the RNC about the plan, any of the leaders of the RNC, or anybody else,” DeSantis told Politico as he toured the National Archives and the National Constitution Center. “If they want to speak to me about it, I’ll have to look at the records, I guess.”
DeSantis didn’t specify whether he had asked the RNC to talk about the 2024 trip after it became public that the 2020 campaign would use it as a backdrop for a series of major policy and political announcements from the White House, including the Trump administration’s promised wall and tax and immigration changes. White House officials and the Trump administration have said since then that the trip is too important for the next president to skip.
In an interview with POLITICO, DeSantis said the 2024 trip could mean things like holding campaign rallies in Tallahassee, but did not say what sort of events would happen on the trip.
“We did have a president who went to the capitol building to deliver a speech and a prayer. Now, that’s a great event. If they do think we should go to the capitol, I say, let’s go and see. I mean, that’s one of the reasons I have such great affection for that building and I love it. It’s great to have a lot of history and the people who built it are great people. That has value, too,” DeSantis said. “We’re in Tallahassee. I’m not going to be a political governor. These things are not about politics per se. People just need to chill out a little bit.”
DeSantis declined to say whether he had spoken with the RNC about the trip since it became public. He called it “a conversation that is already taking place.”
On Wednesday, DeSantis said he didn’t know whether the White House agreed
