Political analyst Dick Morris told Newsmax on Thursday that Ron DeSantis likely would not lose any momentum if he decided to wait until 2028, two years after his last term as Florida's governor ended, to try to win the Republican presidential nomination.
"Those wouldn't necessarily be fatal," Morris said on "John Bachman Now." "Jimmy Carter was out of office [as Georgia's governor] for two years and ran successfully [for president].
"I don't think that would be a problem. He takes positions on stuff and would project himself."
DeSantis appears set to officially enter the 2024 race next week, which would mean a clash with former President Donald Trump, who is far ahead of the GOP field in early polling.
Morris said that to chip away at Trump's sizable advantage, DeSantis would have to position himself to the right of Trump, such as on abortion, which Morris said could benefit President Joe Biden.
"The important point about 2024, DeSantis is now effectively trying to do everything he can to stop Donald Trump from defeating Joe Biden," said Morris, a former presidential adviser to Trump and Bill Clinton. "What he's trying to do is to adopt the strategy of running to the right of Trump.
"He's telling the pro-life movement, for example, forget the three [conservative] judges [Trump] appointed to the [Supreme Court]. Forget about overruling Roe v. Wade. You should oppose Trump because he doesn't support my heartbeat bill on abortion."
The Heartbeat Protection Act that the GOP-led Florida Legislature passed and DeSantis signed in April prohibits abortions after six weeks' gestation, with exceptions for women who are victims of rape, incest, and human trafficking, or whose baby has a diagnosis of a fatal fetal abnormality.
"Most women say, 'I didn't know I was pregnant then,' and the standard that the American people have congealed around as a consensus is a 15-week deadline and that DeSantis is trying to squeeze Trump to the right on that issue," Morris said. "It potentially has the chance to help Joe Biden."
Meanwhile, Morris said the federal government has enough money to pay its debts and operate essential government services even if it goes past an artificial June 1 deadline for raising the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling because it still is bringing in about $2.7 trillion in tax revenue.
"If we were to spend all the money the federal government wants to for every department and every program, you would run out of that money by June 1," Morris said. "But if you prioritize it, and you say we're not going to cut Social Security or Medicare, and we'll pay our debt service, which won't cut defense, and you do cut some of the other agencies, the Post Office, the Patent Office and the State Department and the rest of the bureaucracy, you can skate by that June 1 deadline easily."
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