Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says Donald Trump \u201cflip-flipped\u201d on abortion, overreached in response to COVID-19 and failed to uphold his campaign pledge to get Mexico to pay for a wall on the southern U.S. border<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Donald Trump \u201cflip-flipped\u201d on abortion, overreached in response to COVID-19 and failed to uphold his campaign pledge to get Mexico to pay for a wall on the southern U.S. border, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday in Iowa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeSantis, who is in a distant second place behind Trump in most national polls in the battle for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, stepped up his case against the former president during a CNN town hall in Des Moines five weeks before the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He zeroed in on abortion in a state where evangelical voters form the backbone of the GOP, contrasting Trump’s recent skepticism about strict anti-abortion laws with his earlier comments about protecting the sanctity of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou should be consistent in your beliefs, especially on something that\u2019s very fundamental, and he has not been consistent,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cAnd there\u2019s a lot of voters in Iowa who really care about this, who need to know how he\u2019s changed his position.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeSantis last month picked up the endorsement of Bob Vander Plaats, a prominent Iowa evangelical leader who has also questioned Trump’s commitment to the anti-abortion movement. Trump has responded by emphasizing his support from more than 150 pastors around the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abortion has become a flashpoint in U.S. politics since a Supreme Court majority shaped by Trump’s three appointments eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, helping to power unexpectedly strong Democratic performances in the 2022 midterms. Trump has not backed a national abortion ban and has criticized the way many Republican politicians talk about the issue. He has implied that a Florida law DeSantis signed, which outlaws abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, is \u201c too harsh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked about the case of Kate Cox, a Texas woman who sought an abortion when her health deteriorated as she carried a fetus with a fatal condition, DeSantis was vague. He said \u201cthese are very difficult issues\u201d and pointed to the Florida law\u2019s exceptions allowing abortions when the mother\u2019s life is in danger, though in Cox’s case, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that her pregnancy complications did not constitute the kind of medical emergency under which abortions are allowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeSantis has staked his campaign on a strong showing in Iowa\u2019s leadoff caucuses on Jan. 15, but he\u2019s struggled to break out of a distant second place. Like most of his rivals, he has largely treated the front-runner gingerly, avoiding direct criticism of Trump, who remains popular with GOP primary voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But sprinkled through the CNN town hall was a case to Trump-supporting voters that it’s time to move on. Trump, he said, is no longer the colorful \u201cAmerica First\u201d advocate whom Republicans embraced in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNow a lot of it\u2019s about him,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And he worked to pierce rosy memories of Trump’s tenure in the White House. He said Trump erred in his response to COVID-19, an issue that helped catapult DeSantis to GOP prominence when he refused to go along with strict lockdowns that most other governors imposed early in the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe first three years of the Trump administration, the economy\u2019s better than it has been, but that last year with COVID, I think was mishandled dramatically,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cShutting down the country was a huge mistake. Printing trillions and trillions of dollars was a huge mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeSantis also took aim at one of the defining themes of Trump’s first run for the White House: his promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and have the Mexican government pay for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat didn\u2019t happen,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cAnd why didn\u2019t it happen? Well, one, I think he got distracted, and he didn\u2019t do it on day one. But, two, he didn\u2019t utilize the levers of<\/p>\n\n\n\n