TALLAHASSEE, Florida — As the nation’s eyes focused on Florida for former President Donald Trump’s arraignment Tuesday in Miami federal court, the state’s governor kept a low profile.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, a presidential candidate and rival to Trump for the GOP nomination, appeared to take a pause from a busy campaigning schedule for the day. He held no news conferences. He made a judicial appointment, which his office announced with a short news release before noon.
Early in the day, his campaign Twitter account posted a video of his wife and son at a rodeo, as well as posts sharing some policy platforms and touting an endorsement.
As Trump’s appearance drew closer, DeSantis’ campaign account shared an article about DeSantis’ plan to reconfigure the Department of Justice if he were president, and posted multiple tweets highlighting some of the proposals, like moving the FBI headquarters out of Washington, D.C. The tweets made no direct mention of the indictment.
The Twitter account @DeSantisWarRoom, which does rapid response for the DeSantis campaign, shared the same article, which says that DeSantis has been discussing how to break up the Department of Justice and the FBI.
DeSantis last week criticized the “weaponization” of federal law enforcement and political bias following the news that Trump had been indicted on charges related to mishandling classified documents.
As governor, DeSantis has used law enforcement, his own executive power and the courts to pursue his own agenda.
The last time Trump was arraigned, DeSantis also kept a low profile, attending a closed-press pet adoption event with his wife and children.
The GOP primary pool has been split on how to respond to Trump’s indictment. Some, like Sen. Tim Scott and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have criticized the Department of Justice for perceived biased prosecution. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson called for Trump to end his campaign, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called Trump’s legal problems “self-inflicted wounds.”
Trump, the front-runner in the race, has denounced the 37 counts levied against him as “baseless.” Trump has also criticized the Department of Justice as being biased against him.
