President Joe Biden said he is enjoying the boiling feud between former president Donald Trump and Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida.
Mr Biden held a press conference on Wednesday the day after the midterms when Democrats had a better-than-expected night. At the same time, Mr DeSantis had a resounding victory in his re-election campaign in the former swing state of Florida.
That has led to some people speculating whether he would challenge Mr Trump for the Republican presidential nomination to face Mr Biden in 2024.
NBC News’ Kristen Welker asked if the president preferred to run against Mr Trump or Mr DeSantis.
“It would be fun watching them take on each other,” he said with a smirk on his face and to laughs.
Mr Trump has begun to needle Mr DeSantis, whom he endorsed in 2018 when Mr DeSantis sought the Republican nomination for governor, in not-so-subtle ways in recent weeks, including when he was stumping for other candidates.
During a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania for Republican Senate nominee Mehmet Oz, he cited a poll for a hypothetical Republican primary showing him squarely in the lead. He then proceeded to call the Florida governor “Ron DeSanctimonious.”
On Wednesday Mr Trump posted on his networking platform Truth Social bragging about his success, despite the fact that many Republicans he endorsed lost.
“Now that the Election in Florida is over, and everything went quite well, shouldn’t it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 Million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 Million to 4.6 Million? “ Mr Trump asked. “Just asking?”
In an interview with Fox News before the election, Mr Trump warned that Mr DeSantis should not run against him.
“I don’t know if he is running. I think if he runs, he could hurt himself very badly. I really believe he could hurt himself badly,” he said. “I think he would be making a mistake, I think the base would not like it — I don’t think it would be good for the party.”
Mr DeSantis for his part posted a double-digit victory for a second term on election night after only winning narrowly in 2018, preparing him for a potential run for the Republican nomination.
