Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo questioned Republican presidential candidate and Florida governor Ron DeSantis on Sunday about his lack of enthusiasm for his candidacy.

Citing polls, Bartiromo cited a Politico Handbook memo that said DeSantis’ campaign “failed to launch.”

“How’s the campaign going?” said Bartiromo. “There was a lot of optimism at the beginning of the year that you would run for president…what happened?”

“Maria, this is a story,” said DeSantis with a laugh. “The media don’t want me to be the nominee. I think it’s very obvious. Why? Because they know I’m going to beat Biden. But more importantly: It’s that they know I’ll actually do all these things: stop invasions at our borders, fight drug cartels, shrink the executive state, control spending. We’ll do whatever you can’t do.” (Related article: ‘We Reject Bidenmix’: Ron DeSantis Offers Future Vision, Breaks Liberal Social Policy)

“I never expected to snap my fingers and suddenly someone would win seven months before it happened,” he said. “We have to make money, we have to work, and it takes a lot of work, tears and sweat. And we’re going to do it.”

Bartiromo said Mr. DeSantis trailed former President Donald Trump by a whopping 34 points, referring to a recent Fox News poll, saying that Americans are fed up with a politicized Justice Department, so Mr. argued that they were probably doing well. She then asked Mr. DeSantis if he would participate in the August debate.

“Of course, we’re looking forward to doing that,” DeSantis said. “Maria, I really think that’s when people really start to pay attention to the primaries. i think it is [is] About that, of course. ”

DeSantis now leads Trump 53% to 20.9% on RealClearPolitics average. The sharp drop comes just months after Mr. DeSantis held a large lead over Mr. Trump. A Wall Street Journal poll in December showed 52% of Republican voters backed DeSantis and 38% backed Trump. But polls show Trump’s popularity skyrocketing following indictments in Florida and New York.