Takeaways from CNN’s Iowa town hall with Ron DeSantis

CNN
 — 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday showed new urgency in taking on Donald Trump, attacking the former president at every turn at a CNN town hall in Iowa with the state’s caucuses less than five weeks away.

DeSantis was quick to turn many questions into opportunities to contrast his record as governor with Trump.

The economy? Trump “set the stage” for rising inflation, DeSantis said. The border crisis? Trump didn’t complete the wall, and Mexico didn’t pay for it, he said. Abortion? Trump is “flip-flopping on the right to life,” the Florida governor claimed.

He even blamed Trump for the Satanic Temple of Iowa’s display at the state Capitol, a development that has roiled Iowa and triggered a free speech debate. “Lo and behold, the Trump administration gave them approval to be under the IRS as a religion,” DeSantis said, referring to the Internal Revenue Service granting the group tax-exempt status in 2019.

Missing from Tuesday’s event were the conservative culture war-infused buzzwords that typically pepper DeSantis’ speeches and town halls. Instead, he focused on issues that polls show are top of mind for the broader electorate. And he treated everything — even a question about an endorsement rival Nikki Haley had just gotten from New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu — as an opportunity to attack Trump.

Here are takeaways from DeSantis’ CNN town hall, which was held at Grand View University in Des Moines and moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper:

DeSantis came out of the gate with a clear focus on closing his polling gap in the Hawkeye State with Trump.

He took an early shot at Trump, blaming the former president for the country’s inflation woes under current President Joe Biden and for his Republican rival’s actions at the start of the Covid pandemic.

“Shutting down the country was a huge mistake, printing trillions and trillions of dollars was a huge mistake,” he said.

It continued extensively from there, with DeSantis lobbing a total of eight attacks on the former president over the course of the hour. He dinged Trump for failing to finish the wall at the US-Mexico border as he had famously promised in 2016; for not debating him; for criticizing Florida’s new six-week abortion ban; and for not replacing Obamacare with a Republican alternative.

“When he gets off the teleprompter now, you don’t know what he’s gonna say,” DeSantis said. “It’s a different Donald Trump than in ‘15 and ‘16. You know, back then he was colorful, but it was really America First, about the policies. Now a lot of it’s about him.”

It was a striking string of attacks, though, not because it covered new ground. DeSantis has lobbed similar critiques at Trump on the campaign trail for weeks. But he has rarely, in a prime-time appearance, narrowed his attacks so directly at the former president, and at every turn.

Just a week ago, at the fourth GOP presidential debate, it was Haley whom DeSantis went after, beginning his criticism of the former South Carolina governor 30 seconds into the debate. He mentioned Trump only when provoked. On Tuesday, DeSantis said little about Haley, and even had kind words for Sununu, who had endorsed his rival earlier in the evening.

The change in approach Tuesday is perhaps illustrative of the mounting urgency within his campaign to make headway in a state. DeSantis has signaled a readiness to go after Trump in the past, before retreating. It remains to be seen if this time will be any different.

DeSantis has faced criticism – including within the GOP – for signing into law a measure that bans most abortions after about six weeks, with Trump implying it was “too harsh.”

He argued Tuesday night that Florida’s law includes exceptions for situations such as the one faced by Kate Cox, the Texas woman who sought court approval to have an abortion after learning her fetus has a fatal condition and doctors told her she could risk her future fertility if she doesn’t get the procedure. The Texas Supreme Court on Monday ruled against her, even though Cox had already left the state to seek an abortion elsewhere.

Cox’s lawsuit is believed to be one of the first attempts in the country by a person seeking a court-ordered abortion since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.

The six-week abortion ban that DeSantis signed in Florida includes limited exceptions for cases of rape, incest, pregnancies that jeopardize the life of the mother and fatal fetal defects.

“If you’re in that situation as a mother, that’s an incredibly difficult thing to have to deal with,” he said. “We’ve got to approach these issues with compassion, because these are very difficult issues.”

What DeSantis didn’t say: He signed a 15-week abortion ban into law last year that did not include exceptions for rape and incest. That measure, which is in effect as it awaits a ruling from the Florida Supreme Court, says women can end pregnancies if the mother’s health is at serious risk or a fetal abnormality is fatal, but only if two doctors certify in writing that it’s medically necessary.

The six-week ban — which would take effect only after the Florida high court rules on the legal challenge to the existing 15-week ban — includes limited exceptions for rape and incest, but only for 15 weeks of pregnancy and only if women seeking abortions under those exceptions first show a police report or other evidence of their assault.

After touting the Florida law, DeSantis then pivoted to an attack on Trump, noting the former president had, while in office, strongly opposed abortion rights.

He said Trump is now “flip-flopping on the right to life.”

“I think that’s a huge problem, because we know people come at this from different angles. It’s a big, diverse country. There’s a lot of division about it. But you should be consistent in your beliefs,” DeSantis said.

Listening to a DeSantis stump speech sometimes requires a glossary of terms that are popular among his most conservative – and most online – supporters. Woke, ESG, DEI, CRT, Central Bank Digital Currency, social credit scores, Zuckerbucks – these are all words, phrases and acronyms that are a staple of the governor’s campaign appearances, media interviews and debate responses.

It was noticeable, then, that DeSantis effectively ditched those terms for the entirety of the hourlong town hall. It was also readily apparent that the governor – known for his hard-charging style and pugnacious approach to reporters and political opponents – largely left at home the culture war rhetoric that often accompanies his mentions of those terms.

For months, some advisers have tried to push DeSantis off these relatively esoteric topics, hoping he could broaden his appeal by sticking to issues that are readily understood by most Republican voters. To date, those efforts have not succeeded. He broached “Central Bank Digital Currency” and “Zuckerbucks” at last week’s debate. He mentioned “ESG” in a recent New Hampshire radio appearance and “DEI” while talking to conservative commentator Mark Levin earlier this month.

But for at least one hour Tuesday, in front of the kind of general audience DeSantis has struggled to reach and connect with, those advisers won out.

DeSantis sharply disagreed with Biden, who earlier Tuesday had warned in a closed-door fundraiser that Israel was losing international support for its campaign against Hamas amid its heavy bombardment of Gaza following the October 7 terrorist attacks.

Biden said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “does not want a two-state solution,” referring to the idea of a Palestinian state existing alongside the state of Israel.

DeSantis, though, said Tuesday night that such a solution would be impossible because some groups “want to destroy Israel more than they want their own state.”

“I don’t think you can have a ‘two-state solution’ when the Arabs will view it — the Palestinian Arabs will view it — as a stepping stone to the destruction of Israel,” he said. “Why have we not had a solution there? Because they’ve never recognized Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. And until they’re willing to do that, anything that would be done would just weaken Israel.”

In his response, DeSantis left his differences with Biden over Israel implicit as he defended the country’s tactics and Netanyahu’s government.

The governor’s comments came after an Iowa voter asked him which he would consider a higher priority: support for Israel in its war in Gaza or for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

DeSantis chose Israel. He called it “a unique country in terms of our relationship,” and said Europe should do more to support Ukraine.

DeSantis also defended Israel’s tactics in Gaza, saying that the global criticism of the country was “because of antisemitism” and arguing that blame for the war lay entirely with Hamas.

“Hamas should unconditionally surrender. Israel cannot possibly live with a terrorist group who wants to annihilate their entire country and kill every Jew and usher in a second Holocaust,” he said. “So they have every right to defend themselves.”

DeSantis dodges on Obamacare and Social Security

Though DeSantis criticized Trump for not implementing a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, his own plan remains to be determined.

DeSantis said he would roll out his own health care plan “deeper in the election season” – meaning likely after Republicans in the early-nominating states have already picked their nominee. He vaguely pledged to go after pharmaceutical companies and rising health care costs, without offering details.

He did however hint that his plan would allow health insurance to be “portable” – a proposal once pushed by Sen. John McCain when he was the Republican presidential nominee in 2008.

Similarly, DeSantis criticized Haley’s position on reforming Social Security, but he largely avoided specifics on how he would preserve its longevity – avoiding a topic that dogged him earlier in the campaign season.

CNN’s KFile reported in February that DeSantis, as a candidate for the US House in 2012, expressed support for privatizing Social Security and Medicare. He later distanced himself from those remarks, saying that the GOP will not “mess with Social Security.” More recently, DeSantis has said there will be changes to the entitlement programs for younger generations.

Notably, DeSantis accused Haley of wanting to raise the retirement age to access Social Security benefits. That’s something DeSantis voted for in Congress, KFile found. DeSantis on Thursday night also nodded to the commission former President Ronald Reagan empaneled in the 1980s to reform Social Security as an example of the country coming together to fix a problem. That commission recommended raising the retirement age – and that was among the reforms Reagan eventually signed into law.

This story has been updated with additional information.