(HorizonPost.com) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis slammed former President Donald Trump for supporting amnesty for illegal aliens and adding trillions to the national debt during his term in office, the Washington Examiner reported.
After officially launching his 2024 campaign last Wednesday, DeSantis acknowledged Trump’s attacks against his voting record while serving in Congress.
He noted that Trump has attacked him for voting against the massive omnibus spending package Trump signed when he was president, but added that in doing so, Trump was “drawing helpful contrast with me.”
DeSantis said Trump shouldn’t have signed the omnibus spending bills during his presidency since in doing so, “he added almost 8 trillion to the debt” in just four years. He added that he was happy to be “on the conservative side of that debate,” noting that the national debt has “gone up way too much.” DeSantis also pointed out that Trump is attacking him for voting against the 2018 Goodlatte II immigration bill the then-president endorsed that included amnesty.
The Goodlatte II bill, HR 4760, would have permitted illegals who qualified under the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program to indefinitely renew their legal status every three years. Trump has used DeSantis’ vote against HR 4760 to claim that the Florida Republican voted against the wall.
However, DeSantis noted that the bill only gave “a pittance” to the wall “in exchange for a massive amnesty.” He reiterated his opposition to amnesty for illegal aliens and asked how legislation that granted amnesty could be considered America First.
The governor said he found it “odd” that the Trump campaign would use attacks against him that remind voters about the trillions in spending Trump supported as well as Trump’s support for amnesty.
Despite using DeSantis’s vote against HR 4760 to attack the governor today, back in 2018, then-President Trump argued on Twitter that he never pushed Republicans to support HR 4760 since the bill never would have gotten the 60 votes needed to pass in the Senate.
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