Crist Defends Calling DeSantis ‘One of the Biggest Threats to Democracy,’ Slams ‘His MAGA Extremism’

SAINT PETERSBURG (FLV) – Democrat Gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist appeared on Fox News doubling down on President Joe Biden’s recent remarks and defended his past tweets labeling Gov. Ron DeSantis as a ‘threat to democracy.’

Host Bret Baier brought up Biden’s speech in which he warned against ‘threats to democracy’ and asked Americans to vote against Republicans, saying they are “election deniers and MAGA extremists who have encouraged political violence.”

“You recently tweeted, ‘I’m going to go head-to-head with one of the biggest threats to democracy this country has seen: Ron DeSantis. We have 6 days to build the people-power we need to fight back his MAGA extremism — who’s with us?!'” said Baier.

“Do you think that that is the right closing message when you’re trying to reach, as you said in the beginning, across the aisle to Republicans who may like policies in the previous administration?” he continued.

Crist defended the messaging saying, “Well sure, I do, because I think people need to know the differences are between us. I’m pro-democracy, I’m trying to make it easier to vote […] I’ll make election day in Florida a state holiday. On the contrary, the Governor has made it harder to exercise mail-in voting.”

“In addition to black and brown voters in our state, he’s made it more difficult for them to have drop-boxes to get their ballots in community sections all over the sunshine state- that’s not pro democracy,” Crist said.

In April, DeSantis signed Senate Bill (SB) 524, which required the Department of State to strengthen ID requirements for mail-in ballots, required supervisors of elections to check voter rolls every year for ineligible voters, increased the penalty for ballot harvesting from a first-degree misdemeanor to a third-degree felony, among other items.

 “We need to do more to ensure our elections remain secure. We have ended ballot harvesting, stopped drop boxes and the mass mailing of ballots, and banned Zuckerbucks, and this bill will give us more resources to make sure bad actors are held accountable,” DeSantis previously said.

Crist says he feels good about the state of the race and believes the race will be close.

“Do you look at polls? I mean if you look at the average in polls – do you look at them as you’re heading down the road here – you are trailing significantly if you look at the polls,” said Baier.

“You know that’s true and it’s not true, Bret, we just got a poll two days ago from the Listener Group, has us up over DeSantis at this stage of the race, by 8 points – 54 to 46 and most of that’s attributed to the women’s vote,” said Crist.

According to RealClearPolitics, every poll in the current aggregate has DeSantis beating Crist by double digits on election night.

Crist and DeSantis will go head-to-head in the 2022 midterms on Nov 8.