Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., told Newsmax on Monday that he sees Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a fellow veteran who is concerned about the future of America and its debt, opportunities, and freedoms.
Last week, McCormick, a former Marine helicopter pilot, endorsed DeSantis, a former Navy officer deployed to Iraq, to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
McCormick told "American Agenda" that DeSantis has kept budget deficits in check as Florida's governor, which Trump couldn't do as president, especially in Trump's first two years in office, when Republicans had control of Congress.
"If you want to talk about the biggest decision we have this week, it's going to be tackling the deficit, something that we did a horrible job when we had the presidency, the House and the Senate," McCormick said. "We had a trillion-dollar deficit [with] one of the best economies ever. Don't tell me that we had great policies when we didn't take it seriously when we were in charge.
"We're now dealing with something with a slim [House] majority that we could have handled when we had the majority in all three, and that is something left over from that era.
"I love some of the things that Trump did, but let's be honest about this: We're in this mess because we didn't take it seriously when we were in charge."
McCormick said DeSantis has done a terrific job in bringing more people into the Republican Party because of his conservative policies. He said that is the future of the GOP.
"If you look at what Ron DeSantis did as a governor, how he handled the economy, how he balanced his budget, how he got a surplus, growing the economy by tens of billions of dollars, growing his popularity by almost 20 points, but not increasing deficits, not increasing debt, having true conservative values, fighting against the work mob and increasing the popularity [and] growing the party," McCormick said, "that's the future of our party.
"If we're going to survive into the next generation, it can't be just the right policy, it has to be the right rhetoric."
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