Gov. Ron DeSantis Declines Reporter’s Request to Acknowledge Joe Biden Gov. Ron DeSantis declined a reporter’s request to acknowledge Democrat Joe Biden as “president-elect” after the Electoral College voted Monday—and as President Donald Trump continues his legal challenge in key states. “It’s not for me to do,” DeSantis told reporters on Tuesday. “Here’s what I would say, obviously we did our thing in Florida. The [Electoral] College voted. What’s going to happen is going to happen.” “But I can tell you, I think a lot of the frustration for folks that supported the president was we were four years with people not accepting him,” the Republican governor said. “I mean, Hillary [Clinton] the last week of the election was saying [Vladimir] Putin stole it, and I just think that that’s left a lot of people really frustrated with how it’s going to go.”