https://www.newsweek.com-By Matthew Impelli
Former US President Donald Trump speaks at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 15, 2022. Inset, a photo of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at the Tampa Convention Center on November 8, 2022, in Tampa, Florida. DeSantis has yet to make any comments on the recent criminal referrals the January 6 Committee made for Trump. Alon Skuy; Octavio Jones/Getty Images
Donald Trump’s top 2024 rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has remained silent on the criminal referrals for the former president announced by the January 6 Committee.
On Monday, the House of Representatives Select Committee investigating the January 6 riots at the Capitol voted unanimously to recommend criminal charges for Trump to the U.S. Department of Justice. It prompted some Republicans to come out in support of Trump and warn against the slippery slope the referral potentially created, while others, like Senator Mitch McConnell, backed the criminal referral.
Twenty-four hours after the referrals were announced, DeSantis remained noticeably silent on the issue. The Florida governor, once a close ally to the former president, has recently found himself on the receiving end of Trump’s criticism, but rarely engages in the tit-for-tat.
Craig Agranoff, a political analyst and professor at Florida Atlantic University told Newsweek that he doesn’t think “it’s smart” for DeSantis to remain silent.
“He should mention it’s up to the courts to decide what will happen and trust the legal system. DeSantis will win if he can get the soft Republicans that don’t like Trump,” Agranoff told Newsweek.
Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston told Newsweek that DeSantis’s silence “speaks volumes.”
“There is an old adage often applied to politics to never interrupt your opponent when they are making a mistake. This is exactly what DeSantis is doing,” Rottinghaus said.
While DeSantis has yet to officially announce if he will run for president in 2024, several recent polls have shown him in a tight battle with Trump and he’s regarded as a GOP favorite.
A 2024 Republican nominee tracker from Morning Consult shows 48 percent of respondents saying they will vote for Trump, while 33 percent have sided with DeSantis. The Florida governor is the only candidate except for Trump with more than 8 percent of support, the poll shows.
However, another poll from USA TODAY/Suffolk University found DeSantis leading Trump. The poll found 56 percent of respondents (Republican voters and independent voters that identify as conservative) siding with the Florida governor, while 33 percent said they support Trump.
Newsweek reached out to DeSantis’s office asking if they had any comments on the criminal referrals but did not receive a response by publication time.
The January 6 Committee referred charges for Trump of obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiring to commit an insurrection, and conspiring to defraud the U.S. as he attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Shortly after the criminal referrals were announced, Trump issued several posts to his TruthSocial account, writing “These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. Americans know that I pushed for 20,000 troops to prevent violence on Jan 6, and that I went on television and told everyone to go home….”
“The Fake charges made by the highly partisan Unselect Committee of January 6th have already been submitted, prosecuted, and tried in the form of Impeachment Hoax # 2. I WON convincingly. Double Jeopardy anyone!” Trump wrote in another post.
Updated: 12/20/22 5:03 p.m. EST. This story has been updated to include a comment from Brandon Rottinghaus.