‘Should have come out more forcefully’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis swiped at former President Donald Trump, saying Tuesday he should have been more forceful in calling for calm during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot by his supporters — but also saying the Justice Department should be careful about criminalizing Trump’s behavior during and before that day.

“I think it was shown how he was in the White House and didn’t do anything while things were going on,” DeSantis said in response to a question during an event in Columbia, South Carolina.

“Should he have come out more forcefully? Of course,” DeSantis added. “But to try to criminalize that, that’s a different issue entirely and I think that we want to be in a situation where you don’t have one side just constantly trying to put the other side in jail.”

DeSantis spoke hours after Trump, 77, disclosed that he was informed he is a target of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the events surrounding the ransacking of the Capitol.

Smith has been spearheading the DOJ’s two investigations involving Trump: one into the Capitol riot and the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election result, and the other into sensitive national security material kept at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

DeSantis, who officially filed paperwork to be on the South Carolina primary ballot Tuesday, underscored that he hadn’t had a chance to fully read the target letter.

Earlier in the question-and-answer session, DeSantis was asked about Trump’s announcement and refrained from bashing his rival outright.

“Criminal charges, it’s not just because you may have done something wrong, it’s [a question of] ‘Did you behave criminally?’ And I — what we’ve seen in this country is an attempt to criminalize politics and to try to criminalize differences,” the 44-year-old said.

The Florida governor also juxtaposed the Justice Department’s kid-gloves treatment of Hunter Biden with recent cases against anti-abortion activists.

DeSantis has sparingly commented on the Capitol riot in public, stressing last June that “obviously, I didn’t enjoy seeing” the violence.

He has also largely steered clear of admonishing Trump’s personal conduct, opting for more policy-focused critiques instead.

Trump was slapped with a 37-count indictment last month as part of Smith’s inquiry into the former president’s hoarding of sensitive national security documents and alleged obstruction of justice. The former president has denied wrongdoing across the board.

“Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment,” Trump said in a statement Tuesday.

It is unclear what offenses Trump could be charged with in connection with Smith’s probe.