Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis believes his ability to pull in independents and moderate Republicans will be the secret to mounting an offensive against Trump in an interview set to air Thursday. 

“You can’t win with just Republicans,” DeSantis told Piers Morgan during a clip from the upcoming interview on Fox. “You’ve gotta win with independents, and you need to convince some of these Democrats, which I was able to do in Florida, because they’re not woke, they don’t like some of the nonsense going on. They want their streets safe, and they want quality education. So I think you could appeal to people across the canvas.”

DeSantis, who polls show would fare well in a general election against President Biden, said that if he chooses to run for president, he will do so with the idea that he will focus on attacking Biden and the liberal agenda. 

“I think [Biden has] failed the country,” DeSantis said. “I think the country wants a change. I think they want a fresh start and a new direction and so we’ll be very vocal about that.”

But, with only garnering 26% of the vote in a recent Morning Consult poll, tied for his lowest performance to date, there is no guarantee DeSantis would make it to the favorable showdown with Biden. 

This may be why DeSantis has begun to mount an offensive against Trump in recent days.

On Monday, DeSantis took a shot at Trump while simultaneously calling out the Manhattan District attorney for targeting the former president. “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair,” DeSantis said as the audience chuckled.

In a New York Post op-ed previewing the Fox interview, Morgan said that he took things further in his sit down with the Florida Governor.

“DeSantis slammed Trump over his character failings, chaotic leadership style, and for his handling of the COVID pandemic — especially in keeping controversial health chief Dr. Anthony Fauci in his post helping to run the White House coronavirus task force,” Morgan wrote.

DeSantis said as a leader he seeks to avoid “drama,” while implying that was a defining characteristic of Trump’s tenure:

In terms of my approach to leadership, I get personnel in the government who have the agenda of the people and share our agenda. You bring your own agenda in, you’re gone. We’re just not gonna have that. So, the way we run the government, I think, is no daily drama, focus on the big picture and put points on the board, and I think that’s something that’s very important.”

Until recently, DeSantis has largely avoided mentioning Trump, even when asked directly to address attacks from the former president.

Trump recently admitted that DeSantis is his biggest challenger in the runup to the 2024 election, and has taken multiple swipes at the Florida governor: nicknaming him Ron “Desanctimonious,” questioning his conservative record, and suggesting that DeSantis has little to do with people moving to Florida in droves.

DeSantis maintains that to him, all of Trump’s insults are just “background noise.”

“We really just focus on knocking out victories, day after day, and if I got involved in all the undertow, I would not be able to be an effective governor. So, I don’t think it’s something that makes sense for me,” DeSantis told Mogan.

Despite the growing tension between the two, DeSantis defended Trump from what he describes as a politically motivated witch hunt by Bragg. 

“The Manhattan district attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor, so he, like other Soros-funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety,” DeSantis said during a Monday press conference. “He has downgraded over 50% of the felonies to misdemeanors. He says he doesn’t even want to have jail time for the vast vast majority of crime, and what we’ve seen in Manhattan is we’ve seen the crime rate go up and citizens being less safe.”

The wide-ranging interview seems to be his most recent tease of a presidential bid announcement.

When asked what characteristics the president of the United States needs to run the country he gave arguably his most definitive hint that he will run to date:

I think what it takes is to have a vision for the country, have the ability to exercise leadership and being willing to stand in that fire when it gets really hot and not back down under pressure . . . and I think I have all those things.

However, when asked directly whether he plans to run in 2024 DeSantis continued to play coy, saying “stay tuned.”

The interview is set to air Thursday evening on “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” Fox Nation.