Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis is pitching himself as the youthful option in the 2024 presidential race, lamenting the fall of President Joe Biden this week as indicative of America's decline.
"Well, isn't it kind of just symbolic about the state of the country?" DeSantis told "Kelly & Blaze" on Friday.
"You know, you have a president who lacks energy, who's stumped, stumbling around, no leadership for the country's future — and unfortunately, you see an incident like that."
Biden, 80, said he tripped over a sandbag on stage at the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony Friday, and the White House had quickly come out and said he, the oldest president ever elected or to hold office, was "fine."
DeSantis, 44, is pitching himself as a young and "energetic executive" America needs right now in the White House.
"But you know, I'm running for president because we need to change all that, and we need an energetic executive," DeSantis said. "We need somebody that's going to get in there on Day 1 and spit nails and really take Washington by storm."
DeSantis warned, as he often has vowed to send Biden back "permanently" to his "basement," Americans should not longer stand for their leader being chosen for them by age-old standups for the Democratic Party.
"Washington, D.C., has been imposing its will on us for so long," DeSantis added in the radio interview. "It's about time we the people impose our will on it."
In another campaign event at the end of his campaign tour this week, DeSantis called Biden and America's fall "a sad thing to see."
"You don't want to see anyone do that, but it was frustrating because honestly that was symbolic of the state of our country," DeSantis told campaign event in Beaufort County, South Carolina.
"Our country continues to stub its toe. Our country continues to trip and fall. Our country continues to go in the wrong direction."