Ron DeSantis says Sean Hannity helped mend 2018 tiff between Donald Trump, top Florida Republicans over Hurricane Maria

If you liked the results of the 2018 elections, you can credit a Fox News host, says the Florida Governor.

Both Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott benefited from President Donald Trump’s support in 2018, including at the end of the race.

But DeSantis, a Congressman at the time running to replace Scott as Governor, reveals that Trump wasn’t happy with either him or the future Senator after the candidates distanced themselves in the wake of comments after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico.

And it took Sean Hannity to bring the band back together.

During comments on “Hang out with Sean Hannity,” DeSantis said Trump’s comments that upset some from, and on, the island represented a political liability given an influx of people into Florida ahead of that election.

“You had the whole Puerto Rico thing. So remember, they had Hurricane Maria. And so Puerto Rico is not a state, but these are American citizens. So you had a lot of them pouring into Central Florida. And so the Puerto Rican population increased dramatically. So obviously, you know, our state at the time was a 1-point state. A lot of people said, because of that, a Republican wasn’t going to win in 2018. And that was that,” DeSantis said.

Among other things, Trump said the storm wasn’t a “real catastrophe like Katrina” and said that 2,975 people didn’t die in the wake of the storm, a claim that put the candidates on the defensive.

At the time, Scott tweeted that he disagreed with Trump on the death toll. A DeSantis spokesman said the candidate “doesn’t believe any loss of life has been inflated.”

DeSantis said Trump liked to throw “broadsides” at Puerto Rican politicians. DeSantis described how he and Scott, who have not communicated in more than seven years since DeSantis was sworn in as Governor, tried to ameliorate the situation.

DeSantis recalled that things “may be a little sensitive in Central Florida with this.”

“So Rick and I were trying to just massage it a little bit and maybe just try to put a little sugar on that. And the President, you know, got upset about it,” DeSantis said, crediting Hannity with telling Trump to “get on the team together.”

Hannity had a “big knockdown, drag-out fight” with Trump urging him to “support” the candidates, who were both in competitive races. Eventually, Trump relented and did a couple of rallies.