'I Hope He Sticks It Out': DeSantis Wants Biden to Become the Democratic Nominee

MILWAUKEE, WI—At a breakfast hosted by Governor Ron DeSantis on the third day of the Republican National Convention, DeSantis revealed that he hopes President Biden becomes the Democratic nominee.

Why?

Because he thinks his presidency resembles the movie "Weekend at Bernie's", a 1989 comedy where two friends drag their dead employer "Bernie" around town, pretending he's still alive.

"He's not fit to lead. But I do think if the Democrats want to go down this road, I think that's the best possible scenario for Republicans and so I hope he sticks it out," DeSantis told Florida GOP members at the Milwaukee event, acknowledging that he may have been a "little harsh" on the President during his rousing primetime speech Tuesday night.

DeSantis' comments follow Biden's historically poor debate performance at the end of June, in which his responses were punctuated with various stumbles, gaffes, and nonsensical responses. Democrats panicked, and a slew of congressional liberals, donors, and columnists called for him to step aside to pave the way for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Biden said no.

"It's one thing to have a bad debate because we all make mistakes; you can put your foot in your mouth, you can do different things. But it wasn't just that he had a bad debate—it was that he exposed a problem that is not fixable," DeSantis said, claiming that Biden's alleged mental decline makes him unfit to lead the nation.

He pivoted to Florida, touting the one million more registered Republicans than Democrats—a huge lead that took off around 2022 when the state Legislature passed a law removing inactive voters from state rolls.

"It just shows you that we're not consigned to failure, we're not consigned to have the Democrats take over everything. If you lead and you deliver, people respond," he said, lauding the massive ingress to the state which he says is seen as a "refuge of freedom and citadel of safety", due to the hands-off COVID laws, parents' rights measures, and tough on crime policies.

There is one thing, however, that DeSantis thinks may allow Democrats to take back the state—two proposed constitutional amendments that he believes "will be bad for the quality of life and...will make Florida more blue."

The ballot initiatives, Amendments 3 and 4, would allow adult use of recreational marijuana and permit abortions until fetal viability—around 24 weeks—respectively. This, DeSantis says, is something "we have to defeat".

He slammed the abortion amendment for eliminating "all pro-life protections [and] parental consent for abortion," and claimed it would allow women to have abortions "all the way up to the moment of birth." He referenced the amendment's ability to override the state's six-week ban, which he signed into law in 2023.

The marijuana amendment, meanwhile, is "way more liberal than anything else other states have done," the Governor said, blasting its allowance of three ounces per person, claiming the "limitless constitutional right" would let people smoke between 40 and 80 joints.

The RNC, hosted in Milwaukee, began on Monday and will end on Thursday.