Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis said the four indictments against Donald Trump have "distorted" the Republican presidential primary campaign by energizing the former president's supporters and preventing challengers from gaining traction.
"If I could have one thing change, I wish Trump hadn't been indicted on any of this stuff," DeSantis said in an interview Thursday in Iowa with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network.
On March 18, about two weeks before Trump was indicted by Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg regarding alleged hush money paid to adult actress Stormy Daniels, DeSantis was within striking distance of Trump in the FiveThirtyEight average polling, trailing by 15.1 percentage points (46.8% to 31.7%).
Since Bragg's indictiment and three other criminal indictments by Democrat Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith and Democrat Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis — Trump pleaded not guilty to all — Trump's lead has grown to 58.1 percentage points (62% to 11.9%) over DeSantis, with the Iowa caucuses kicking off the GOP primary season 25 days away.
"From Alvin Bragg on, I've criticized the cases," DeSantis said. "Someone like a Bragg would not have brought that case if it was anyone other than Donald Trump. Someone like that is distorting justice, which is bad, but I also think it distorted the primary."
DeSantis said the indictments have helped Trump in the primary season because they "crowded out a lot of stuff and sucked out a lot of oxygen."
DeSantis said Trump could win the GOP nomination, but added that he's not convinced Trump can defeat President Joe Biden in the general election, even though several recent polls have showed Trump leading Biden overall and in several swing states.
"The media has never wanted to show him ever leading up until very recently, so why are they doing that?" DeSantis said. "I think they're trying to create a narrative that scares Democrats to replace Biden and also tries to convince Republicans to go ahead and nominate Trump.
"I guarantee you, six or nine months later, those polls are going to look a lot different. The media will be putting out polls saying the exact opposite."
Newsmax reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.