Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used former President Donald Trump's famous line against him in the first 2024 GOP primary debate Wednesday evening hosted by Fox News.

DeSantis said he would have fired presidential adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the COVID-19 pandemic under the Trump administration.

"Why are we in this mess? Part of it and a major reason is because how this federal government handled COVID-19 by locking down this economy," DeSantis said at the debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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"It was a mistake," he continued. "It should have never happened, and in Florida, we led the country out of lockdown. We kept our state free and open. And I can tell you this, as your president, I will never let the deep state bureaucrats lock you down."

"You don't take somebody like Fauci and coddle him. You bring Fauci and you sit him down, and you say, ‘Anthony, you are fired,'" he added, sparking applause.

Ahead of the debate the Republican National Committee required candidates to obtain minimum of 40,000 donors with 200 in 20 or more states and poll at 1% at least in three national polls or a mix of national and early-state polls deemed acceptable.

Eight of the nine candidates who qualified showed up to the debate: The others are former Vice President Mike Pence, DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, biotech entrepreneur and bestselling author Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Former President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he wouldn’t be attending.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is facing calls to drop out of the Republican presidential primary after he failed to earn a spot on the stage for the first GOP debate Wednesday evening.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Miami Herald editorial board published an op-ed calling for Suarez to "face the music." The editorial pointed to comments Suarez recently made stating that candidates who don't make the debate stage by failing to earn a sufficient amount of support should drop out of the race.

"I agree that if you can’t meet the minimum thresholds, you shouldn’t be trying to take the time involved away from being productive," Suarez told reporters at the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 11.

"I don’t think candidates should just sort of linger around ... if they don’t have a credible path," he added.

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Ahead of the debate the Republican National Committee required candidates to obtain minimum of 40,000 donors with 200 in 20 or more states and poll at 1% at least in three national polls or a mix of national and early-state polls deemed acceptable. Suarez met the donor requirement, but failed to get 1% support in polls.

The Miami Herald editorial board said Suarez never had a credible path to the nomination and should drop out to allow himself to again focus entirely on his mayoral duties.

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"Staying in the race is a fruitless exercise that takes time away from Suarez’s mayoral duties," the editorial stated.

"On paper, Suarez represents the future of the Republican Party. At 45, he’s young, Hispanic and a mayor in the nation’s third-largest state," it continued. "But Miami’s bitcoin mayor — the darling of tech bros who have built a lot of hype around Miami’s emerging tech sector — was out of his depth running to lead the world’s most powerful democracy."

The editorial further noted a slate of recent negative headlines Suarez has faced since announcing his intention to run for president in June.

For example, in a radio interview on June 27, Suarez appeared confused when asked about Uyghurs, the minority group the Chinese government has persecuted. He is also being investigated for his relationship to businessman Rishi Kapoor who paid Suarez $170,000 in consulting fees while having business before the city. 

And Suarez is the subject of an ethics complaint for accepting VIP tickets to the Formula One race in Miami and the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

"Suarez’s commitment to his public office was under question before he jumped in the GOP primary," the Miami Herald editorial continued. "Is running for president just a vanity project, or is Miami’s ambitious mayor more concerned in using his bid as a jumping-off point for his next lucrative gig? Either way, he should call it a day."