Ron DeSantis Claims Presidential Viability, But Fox News Ticker Disagrees

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (Republican) attempted to make his case for being the 2024 Republican presidential nominee over Donald Trump on Fox News, but the network’s news ticker kept undermining him.

DeSantis appeared on the network on Friday to explain the steps he is taking to ensure his victory in next year’s Republican primaries, including visiting 55 of Iowa’s 99 counties.

“We’re gonna be in those early states ― Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina ― making the case to people, answering their questions, shaking their hands,” DeSantis said, “doing what we need to do to be able to show that we will be the 47th president of the United States.”

DeSantis said all the things you might expect from a presidential candidate, but there was just one teensy-weensy little problem: The network’s news ticker kept dropping “truth bombs” that seemed to explode his contention of viability.

During the interview, the ticker noted the following:

• “DeSantis has not polled above 20% in a national poll since July.”
• “Fox Poll: Trump leads DeSantis by 47 points in 2024 GOP field.”
• “Fox Poll: 13% GOP support for DeSantis marks his lowest level to date.”
• “Fox Poll: GOP support for DeSantis has fallen by 15 points since Feb.”
• “Fox Poll: Biden leads DeSantis 47% to 44% in hypothetical matchup.”
• “August: DeSantis replaced campaign manager as part of campaign reset.”
• “DeSantis trails Trump by 30+ points in both Iowa and New Hampshire.”

You can watch the segment below.

Neither Fox News nor the DeSantis campaign immediately responded to HuffPost’s request for comment on the news ticker.

Although DeSantis told CBS News earlier this week that he thinks the chance of Trump “getting elected president after being convicted of a felony is as close to zero as you can get,” RealClearPolitics’ polling average on Friday showed Trump leading DeSantis in the GOP primary race 56.6% to 12.7%.