Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis sought to reset his U.S. presidential bid Tuesday with his first major interview outside conservative media, but the effort seemed to be largely overshadowed by the legal issues confronting Republican primary front-runner Donald Trump.
Minutes before DeSantis was due to sit down with CNN, Trump announced he was expecting to be indicted for a third time, this time as part of the federal probe into his role in Jan. 6 and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
DeSantis, 44, had planned to make a splash with a fresh policy announcement on eradicating "wokeness" in the military -- a high-profile issue for many in the Republican Party. But he ended up being asked straight out of the gate about the former president -- and having the rest of his interview pushed back to the second half of the hour as CNN's analysts took stock of the breaking news.
"I hope he doesn't get charged. I don't think it would be good for the country. But at the same time, I've got to focus on looking forward and that's what we're going to do," the governor said.
DeSantis has been criticized in some quarters for not going in hard enough against Trump, whose polling lead against him has expanded from a bridgeable 13 points in January to a possibly insurmountable 33.5 points Tuesday.
He has been trying to present himself as an electable alternative to the former president, but some analysts have tagged him for awkwardness with the public on the campaign trail, his fiercely conservative politics and missteps he has made on foreign policy.
DeSantis has so far granted interviews almost exclusively to conservative outlets, drawing allegations that he is afraid to engage with journalists outside of the "safe space" of that media ecosphere.
Ahead of his CNN appearance, pro-DeSantis political action committee Never Back Down stirred fresh controversy with a new ad using a computer-generated Trump voice.
"Some reboots were never going to be successful, like 'Dynasty,' 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,' or even 'MacGyver.' And now we can add Ron DeSantis's 2024 campaign to the list of failures," Trump aide Jason Miller hit back.
Trump, 77, has already been indicted twice and is facing more than 70 felony charges, including for financial fraud over hush money payments to a porn star and for refusing to surrender classified secrets he took upon leaving office.
Prosecutors in the southern state of Georgia are expected to decide next month whether to indict him over his bid to overturn the state's 2020 results.
Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said he received a letter from special counsel Jack Smith on Sunday stating that he's a target of the probe into Jan. 6, when Trump supporters stormed Congress in a bid to prevent certification of Democrat Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.
"This witch hunt is all about election interference and a complete and total political weaponization of law enforcement," he said. "It is a very sad and dark period for our Nation!"
It was not immediately clear what charges Trump may face. According to The Washington Post, a target letter does not necessarily mean charges will be brought against the recipient.