Watch: ‘What Happened?’ – Bartiromo Pushes DeSantis to Answer Harsh Questions About Campaign

Republican presidential contender and Florida Gov. 👤Ron Desantis pushed back firmly Sunday when questioned about the health of his campaign.

On Friday, Politico’s Playbook took some shots at DeSantis in a snippet with the blurb “Failure to launch.”

The piece said the DeSantis campaign “has stalled” and that he is “starting to look like the overhyped predecessors of GOP primaries past who entered the race with high expectations and lots of money, only to fall on their faces.”

“‘We are way behind,’ says a top DeSantis PAC official, sounding the alarm,” the piece wrote, supporting its contention by saying DeSantis has not been climbing in the polls since he announced his candidacy.

That set the stage for Fox News host Maria Bartiromo to ask DeSantis on Sunday, “But I’m wondering what’s going on with your campaign?”

After reading choice tidbits from Politico’s piece as DeSantis tried to laugh it off, she asked, “What happened?”

“Maria, these are narratives,” DeSantis said after another chuckle.

“The media does not want me to be the nominee. I think that’s very, very clear. Why? Because they know I’ll beat Biden. But even more importantly, they know I will actually deliver on all these things,” he said.

“We will stop the invasion at the border. We will take on the drug cartels. We will curtail the administrative state. We will get spending under control. We will do all the things that they don’t want to see done, and so they’re going to continue doing the type of narrative,” he said.

DeSantis said he had proven doubters wrong before.

“And I would just also point out my re-election in Florida, we had the greatest victory that any Republican governor candidate in the history of the state had. And yet, a few months before the election, I had media saying that somehow my re-election campaign was stalling, that we weren’t doing anything,” he said.

“And so we’re doing what it takes to win. It’s not a national primary. That’s not how these things are going,” he said, adding that he believes his fundraising is strong.

“So we have got a long way to go. I’m looking forward to being able to participate in the debates, but this is not something that I ever expected to just snap fingers and, all of a sudden, you win seven months before anyone happens,” he said.

“You got to earn it, and you got to work. And it requires a lot of toil and tears and sweat. And we’re going to do that.”

DeSantis said he will appear at the Aug. 23 GOP presidential debate, which he cited as the real start of the primary process.

“I think really, Maria, that’s when people are really going to start paying attention to the primary. I think up to this point, a lot of that has been about some of these legal cases,” he said, referring to the indictments against former President Donald Trump, who leads DeSantis in the polls.

“And I think a lot of the voters’ concern about that and understandably so. But I think that’s going to be the focus. We’re going to be able to talk about the vision. And I look forward to doing it,” he said.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.