Florida Governor Ron DeSantis addressed a recent narrative in the media that his campaign is struggling to find its footing by highlighting his recent fundraising numbers and other factors in primary, which still in its early stages.

DeSantis made the remarks during an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” with host Maria Bartiromo.

“These are narratives. The media does not want me to be the nominee,” he said. “I think that’s very, very clear. Why? Because they know I’ll beat Biden. But even more importantly, they know I will actually deliver on all these things. We will stop the invasion at the border, we’ll take on the drug cartels, we’ll curtail the administrative state, we’ll get spending under control. We’ll do all the things that they don’t want to see done.”

DeSantis said that national primary polls were effectively useless because the primary is not national and it takes place over a series of months, not all on one day.

“I can tell you we understand this is a state-by-state process,” he said. “We’ve had incredible support in the early states building an organization, signing up the key people that you need to be able to compete in a place like Iowa. We just launched our ‘Mamas Movement’. My wife was in Iowa with governor Kim Reynolds launching that.”

DeSantis said that women, especially moms, were going to be a large focus of his campaign and he believes they will turn out to be “the secret weapon both in the primary and the general election.”

“Nobody has been a better champion for those folks than me,” he said. “And I would just also point out, you know, my re-election in Florida we had the greatest victory that any Republican governor candidate in the history of the state had, and yet a few months before the election I had media saying that somehow my re-election campaign was stalling, that we weren’t doing anything. And so we’re doing what it takes to win.”

“And, oh, by the way, we just announced last week better fundraising than any non-incumbent has ever had if you look at what was reported, it was about $150 million, and that hasn’t even been deployed yet,” he continued. “We’ve got a long way to go. I’m looking forward to being able to participate in the debates, but this is not something that, you know, I ever expected to just snap fingers and all of a sudden, you know, you win seven months before anything happens. You’ve got to work, and it requires a lot of toil and tears and sweat, and we’re going to do that.”

Bartiromo said during the interview that one of the biggest reasons that Trump was up at this point in the primary was because of the investigations into him.

WATCH:

A panel discussion on MSNBC over the weekend quickly devolved into the host and guests slinging insults at Florida’s First Lady Casey DeSantis — and then laughing at their own jokes about her.

The panel, hosted by weekend anchor Jonathan Capehart, included former Florida congressman — and former Republican — David Jolly along with former GOP communications director Tara Setmayer. All three of them attacked Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL), taking direct aim at Casey DeSantis’ recent “Mamas for DeSantis” campaign ad.

WATCH:

"She's become America's Karen," @DavidJollyFL says about Casey DeSantis. "It doesn't matter if it's presented in heels or boots, the DeSantis doctrine is a losing one." https://t.co/Hn0POU398v pic.twitter.com/SmVXBqfzpy

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 8, 2023

The ad in question tackled some of the same culture war issues that Governor DeSantis has addressed both on the campaign trail and in his state, specifically issues that families face as children are confronted — in public schools and libraries — with radical gender ideology and drag queen story hours.

“It’s so dark!” Capehart complained after showing the ad, asking his panelists to weigh in on the topic.

“Casey DeSantis is a fairly compelling political figure in Florida and now nationally,” Jolly began on a positive note. “For many, she’s the brighter side to Florida’s angry governor. For others, she’s become America’s Karen. And I think that’s the ultimate disconnect here with a campaign that needs to embrace more constituencies to get to the White House.”

Jolly went on to say that while he believed Casey DeSantis to be a “more effective” messenger than the governor himself, he believed she was highlighting a message that was not going to be popular. “So as I like to say, it doesn’t matter if it’s presented in heels or boots, the DeSantis doctrine is a losing one, and we’re going to learn that the more Casey gets out there.”

“David Jolly, you went for it!” Capehart said, laughing. “Tara, I think David’s beaten you in terms of taking my breath away during a segment.”

“Well, I called her – the Serena Waterford wannabe needs to cut it out,” Setmayer replied, referencing the evil wife from “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

“She needs to stop trying to measure the great drapes in the White House and think that she’s some kind of Jackie O reincarnated,” Setmayer added.

No one on the panel addressed either the content of Casey DeSantis’ ad or any aspect of the “DeSantis doctrine” that they insisted was a “losing doctrine.”