DeSantis says election fraud theories promoted by Trump ‘did not prove to be true’

DECORAH, Iowa — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday offered his strongest dismissal of the election fraud theories at the heart of former President Donald Trump's push to overturn the 2020 election.

Asked by a reporter during a campaign stop in Iowa whether the 2020 election was "stolen," DeSantis said the fraud theories "did not prove to be true." He did not, however, mention the name of his top rival for the GOP nomination, who was just indicted for allegedly working to overturn the last presidential election.

"I've said many times the election is what it is," DeSantis said. "All those theories that were put out did not prove to be true. But what I've also said is the way you conduct a good election that people have confidence in, you don't change the rules in the middle of the game."

DeSantis went on to talk up changes made to Florida election law under his administration. And he criticized Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's grants for election administration, as well as social media outlets for deemphasizing information from President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden's laptop ahead of the 2020 vote — two favorite targets of conservatives when excoriating the last presidential election.

"So it was not an election that was conducted the way I think we want to," DeSantis added. "But that's different than saying, like, [Venezuelan President Nicolas] Maduro stole votes or something like that. And I think those theories, you know, proved to be unsubstantiated."

The comment about the Venezuelan president is a reference to comments ex-Trump attorney Sidney Powell made in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when she baselessly claimed a nefarious connection between certain voting machines and the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

DeSantis' comments come one day after Trump was arraigned in Washington, D.C., for his effort to overturn the election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Currently a distant second behind Trump in presidential primary polling, DeSantis' comments around that effort and the riot have not been as forceful as rivals like former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who have harshly castigated Trump's actions in recent weeks.

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In the past, DeSantis has shown reluctance to offer direct or critical answers to questions about Trump’s post-2020 scheming. As he campaigned for re-election in Florida last year, he notably went on the road for election-denying candidates in other states, including Kari Lake in Arizona and Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania. Both lost their races for governor.

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“I’ve been asked that a hundred different times,” DeSantis said of 2020 election questions during a Florida news conference last year. “Anyone have a question on the topic of the day?”

DeSantis has also said the Jan. 6 riot — the event at the center of the latest federal indictment against Trump — was “not an insurrection.”

Asked at a June town hall-style forum in New Hampshire if Trump had violated the “peaceful transfer of power,” that day, DeSantis was reserved in his response. He remarked how he had “nothing to do with what happened that day” but “didn’t enjoy” seeing the images.

“We had a transition of power from my first administration to my second, because I won re-election in a historic fashion,” DeSantis added, offering another subtle contrast with Trump.