CNN commentator Ana Navarro questioned the integrity of Tuesday's gubernatorial election in Florida, suggesting incumbent Gov. Ron DeSantis (R.) prevailed by a 20-point margin "because he gamed the system."
"I think [DeSantis's victory is] being completely misread; I think the narrative is all wrong," Navarro, a commentator for CNN and cohost of The View, said Wednesday on the network. Navarro suggested DeSantis's narrow victory over Democrat Andrew Gillum in 2018 was evidence that his commanding win over Democrat Charlie Crist this week was the result of a rigged election.
"Yesterday, [DeSantis] won by 20 percentage points," Navarro said. "Why? Because he gamed the system. Because he turned Florida into an unlevel playing field. They changed election laws, making it harder to vote by mail. They paraded a bunch of people, black people that they arrested for voting fraud, and paraded them in front of national media. He created an election police."
Navarro's allegation of a rigged election comes after she has frequently criticized Republicans who she says have pushed the "big lie" that the 2020 presidential election was stolen through fraud.
Navarro has tweeted numerous times about the "big lie," accusing those who question election results of destroying "the trust of the American people" in democracy.
On Tuesday, DeSantis secured a historically dominant victory in Florida even as Republicans fell short of expectations nationally. The governor won all but 5 of Florida's 67 counties, securing Miami-Dade County for Republicans for the first time since 2002.