Florida governor Ron DeSantis criticized former president Donald Trump over his claim that debating Hillary Clinton after the release of the controversial Access Hollywood tape in 2016 was a braver act than those of soldiers defending their country.
DeSantis’s comments came during a CNN town hall on Tuesday during which the GOP presidential candidate took questions from Iowa voters. Asked by moderator Jake Tapper to respond to Trump’s comments, DeSantis accused Trump of being “offensive” and “wrong.”
Trump claimed during a speech at the New York Young Republican Club’s annual gala that a general praised him for the bravery he had shown when he chose to debate Clinton after an audio clip had leaked of Trump suggesting he could grab women by their genitals without consequence because of his fame.
“I went onto that stage just a few days later. And a general, who’s a fantastic general, actually, said to me, ‘Sir, I’ve been on the battlefield, men have gone down on my left and on my right. I stood on hills with soldiers who were killed. But I believe the bravest thing I’ve ever seen was the night you went onto that stage with Hillary Clinton after what happened,’” Trump said
“And then that woman asked you the first question about it. And I said, ‘Locker-room talk! It’s locker-room talk! What the hell?’” Trump said.
DeSantis said Trump is different now than he was when he first ran for president in 2015 and 2016. “Back then he was colorful, but it was really America first about the policies. Now a lot of it is about him,” he said.
“Debating is the bare minimum that a political candidate should do,” DeSantis added. “And I would note Donald Trump has refused to debate throughout this campaign. He doesn’t think he owes it to Iowans. He doesn’t think he owes it to Granite Staters to show up and debate and answer questions.”
DeSantis, who recently completed his tour of each of Iowa’s 99 counties, said Trump would never do the same and only drops in to the early-primary states to deliver speeches and leave.
“Nobody is entitled to this nomination,” DeSantis said. “You’ve got to earn this nomination. You shake their hands and you show them that you care about the future of their communities.”
Still, Trump notched support from 51 percent of likely Iowa caucus-goers in the latest NBC News / Des Moines Register poll, while his nearest rival, DeSantis, garnered just 19 percent support.
The results give Trump the largest lead ever recorded in a competitive GOP primary five weeks out from the contest.
During Tuesday’s town hall, DeSantis also addressed the case of a Texas woman seeking to have an abortion who recently sued the state despite a law banning abortion in the state with few exceptions.
Kate Cox asked a Texas court to grant an emergency request allowing her to have an abortion at 20 weeks after learning that her fetus has trisomy 18, a genetic condition that causes physical-growth delays during fetal development. At least 95 percent of fetuses with trisomy 18 don’t survive full term because of complications from the condition, with pregnancies ending in miscarriage or stillbirth, according to Cleveland Clinic.
A judge granted the emergency request, though the Texas supreme court later ruled against Cox. As the legal battle progressed this week, Cox left the state to have an abortion, according to her attorneys.
DeSantis said it’s important to “approach these issues with compassion,” calling the situation “an incredibly difficult thing to have to deal with.” He pointed to Florida’s abortion law, which bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected but makes exceptions, including in cases in which a fatal fetal defect is present. “That’s a very small percentage that those exceptions cover,” he said.
Fellow GOP presidential contender Nikki Haley also reacted to Cox’s story on Tuesday.
“We don’t want any women to sit there and deal with a rare situation and have to deliver a baby in that sort of circumstance any more than we want women getting an abortion at 37, 38, 39 weeks,” Haley said during a trip to New Hampshire.