DeSantis rejects joining Trump ticket as VP: 'I am not doing that'

Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday rejected the prospect of joining former President Donald Trump on the ticket as his vice president after the GOP frontrunner confirmed DeSantis was on the shortlist for the role.

"People were mentioning me [as a potential vice president]. I am not doing that," DeSantis said in a call with delegates his campaign recruited for the Republican National Convention that the New York Post obtained. He further indicated that Trump was seeking a running mate based off of criteria that did not align with his own considerations.

"So you need someone who can just go in, day one, no problem, they can do the job," he went on. I'm not sure that those are necessarily going to be the criteria that Donald Trump uses. I think he's going to probably use different criteria."

"I've heard that they are looking more at identity politics. I think that's a mistake. I think you should just focus on who you think the best person for the job would be," he went on.

Trump confirmed that DeSantis was on his VP shortlist during a Fox News town hall in South Carolina. Host Laura Ingraham listed prospective candidates whom the audience had suggested, including DeSantis, tech mogul Vivek Ramaswamy,  South Carolina GOP Sen. Tim Scott, South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem, former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, and Florida GOP Rep. Byron Donalds.

"Are they all on your shortlist?" Ingraham asked. "They are," was his response.

"The VP choice has absolutely no impact. It's whoever the president is," Trump said. "You would like to get somebody that could help you from the voter standpoint and honestly, all of those people are good. They're all good. They're all solid."

DeSantis dropped out of the Republican primary in January after the Iowa Caucus and endorsed Trump.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.