It’s the political match-up that has the mainstream media practically foaming at the mouth: Former President Donald Trump versus Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 presidential election.

But DeSantis refuses to bite — and on Monday he had the perfect response to the media trying to goad him into a fight with the 45th president.

Trump had taken a swipe at DeSantis over the weekend on the social media app TruthSocial over Florida’s reponse to the COVID pandemic in 2020.

When pressed, DeSantis said accepting criticism — even from political allies — is part of the job.

“I roll out of bed, I have people attacking me from all angles,” DeSantis replied. “It’s been happening for many, many years.”

He continued —

The good thing is that when you’re an elected executive, you have to make all kinds of decisions. You got to steer that ship. And the good thing is, is that the people are able to render a judgment on that – whether they reelect you or not.

And I’m happy to say, you know, that in my case, not only did we win reelection, we won with the highest percentage of the vote that any Republican governor candidate has in the history of the state of Florida.

We won by the largest raw vote margin — over 1.5 million votes — than any governor candidate has ever had in Florida history.

In fact, we almost doubled the previous record. That verdict has been rendered by the people of Florida.

Watch for yourself —

DeSantis responds to Trump's criticism of his COVID response:

"I roll out of bed, I have people attacking me from all angles. It's been happening for many many years…The people are able to render a judgement on that, whether they reelect you, or not." pic.twitter.com/7gbsbqpwoE

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 31, 2023

In just hours, DeSantis’ response was taken out of context by media outlets like Politico.

Take a look —

Politico tries to frame this as "I got reelected. You didn't" Here's the quote pic.twitter.com/RywHUIj3qd

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) January 31, 2023

[FLASHBACK] Ron DeSantis got some very good news on Thanksgiving…

 

The Horn editorial team