Donald Trump has “made a U-turn” on abortion, overstepped his bounds in reaction to COVID-19 and failed to deliver on his crusade promise to get Mexico to pay for a wall on the U. S. southern border, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday. in Iowa.
DeSantis, who is second to Trump in major national polls in the 2024 GOP presidential nomination war, stepped up his arguments against the former president at a CNN conference at Des Moines City Hall five weeks before the state’s first National Caucus vote.
He focused on abortion in a state where the evangelical electorate shapes the backbone of the Republican Party, contrasting Trump’s recent skepticism about strict anti-abortion legislation with his previous comments about protecting the sanctity of life.
“You have to be consistent in your beliefs, especially on something very fundamental, and he hasn’t been consistent,” DeSantis said. “And there are a lot of constituents in Iowa who care about that, who want to know how he replaced his position. “
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.
Abortion has been a flashpoint in American politics since a majority on the Supreme Court, shaped through Trump’s three nominations, eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, helping to fuel oddly strong Democratic performances in the 2022 midterm elections. Trump has not supported a national abortion ban. And he has criticized the way many Republican politicians approach the issue. He warned that a Florida law signed by DeSantis, banning abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, was “too harsh. “
When asked about the case of Kate Cox, a Texas woman who sought an abortion when her physical condition deteriorated while carrying a fetus with a fatal illness, DeSantis was vague. He said “these are very difficult questions” and pointed to exceptions in Florida law that allow abortions. when the mother’s life is in danger, even though in the Cox case, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that headaches resulting from her pregnancy do not constitute the type of medical emergency in which abortions are permitted.
DeSantis staked his campaign on a strong showing in Iowa’s first caucuses on Jan. 15 but struggled to emerge from a remote moment. Like most of his rivals, he has largely treated the front-runner cautiously, avoiding complaining directly about Trump, who remains popular with No. 1 Republican voters.
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 “America First” advocate whom Republicans embraced in 2016.
“Now it’s very much about him,” DeSantis said.
And he went out of his way to bring up fond memories of Trump’s tenure in the White House. He said Trump made a mistake in his reaction to COVID-19, a factor that helped propel DeSantis to the forefront of the GOP when he refused to accept the strict lockdowns that most other governors imposed at the start of the pandemic.
“In the first 3 years of the Trump administration, the economy is bigger than it has been, yet last year, with COVID, I think it was dramatically mismanaged,” Array DeSantis said. “Shutting down the country is a huge mistake. Printing billions of dollars is a huge mistake. “
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.
“That didn’t happen,” DeSantis said. Well, first of all, I think he got distracted, and he didn’t on the first day. But, secondly, he didn’t use the levers of strength that he had. “