CNN town hall with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Iowa

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.

In the town hall at Grand View University in Des Moines, moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper, DeSantis turned most questions into opportunities to contrast his record as governor with Trump. 

Here are takeaways from the CNN town hall:

Focusing on the front-runner: 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.

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.

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.

DeSantis says Trump is "flip-flopping" on abortion: 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.

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.

He 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.”

On a two-state solution and Israel: 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.”

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.

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.

Read more of the key moments from the Iowa town hall with Ron DeSantis.

Asked about the need to reform Social Security, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized his rival former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for wanting to raise the retirement age. He pointed to the nation’s demographic trends.

“Life expectancy is declining in this country. It's tragic, but it's true,” he said. 

Facts First: It’s true that life expectancy suffered historic drops during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, but DeSantis’ claim needs context. Life expectancy started to rebound last year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

In 2022, life expectancy at birth rose by 1.1 years to 77.5 years, according to provisional CDC data. But it’s still lower than it has been in roughly 20 years. The recent increase offset less than half of the 2.4 years of life lost in the first two years of the pandemic.  

A decline in mortality from Covid-19 was a main reason why life expectancy rose last year. About 245,000 people died from Covid-19 in 2022, down from more than 462,000 deaths in 2021 and from about 385,000 deaths in 2020, according to CDC data.  

When asked how he would protect Social Security for future generations, Ron DeSantis blamed Congress for the entitlement program’s financial troubles. 

“Congress has taken money out of the Social Security fund for decades. They used to have surpluses there — Congress needed more money to do its spending so they take it and they spend it and then they'd write IOUs. That's the main reason why Social Security is having fiscal challenges,” DeSantis said. 

Facts First: DeSantis’ explanation here is inaccurate. The federal government has essentially borrowed from Social Security, but that is not the main reason why the program is facing insolvency in just over a decade. The primary problem is demographics – there are not enough workers to support the growing number of Social Security beneficiaries. 

Even after all the borrowed funds have been paid back, the Social Security trust fund for retirees and survivors is projected to run dry in a decade, said Marc Goldwein, senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a government watchdog organization. At that time, beneficiaries could face a 23% cut in benefits.  

Social Security is on shaky financial ground in large part because of the aging of the American population. Fewer workers are paying into the program and supporting the ballooning number of beneficiaries, who are also living longer. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took the stage on Tuesday night in a CNN town hall in Iowa ahead of the state’s caucuses next month.

DeSantis has been in a race with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to be the main alternative to former President Donald Trump for the party’s nomination. He turned most questions into opportunities to contrast his record as governor with Trump.

See photos from the event:

Ron DeSantis claimed he rescued people in Israel after the October 7 Hamas attack because the US State Department and embassy in Israel “wasn’t helping them.”

Facts first: DeSantis’ claim is both untrue and needs context. 

It is inaccurate to say that the State Department did not help Americans in Israel after Hamas’ October 7 attack. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby announced on October 12 that the US government would begin arranging charter flights for Americans seeking to leave Israel on October 13. The first US government flight out of Israel landed in Athens on October 13.

Separately, DeSantis declared a state of emergency in Florida on October 12, allowing him to access a $500 million fund that does not require legislative approval, to evacuate people from Israel to Tampa. He told reporters in New Hampshire in October that he anticipated the first evacuation flight would land in Florida on October 15 — two days after the first US government flight came out of Israel.

The Biden campaign said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used “his signature rant and scare tactics" at Tuesday night's CNN town hall in Iowa.

The statement also refers to former President Donald Trump as DeSantis’ "frienemy" and accuses the Florida governor of not caring about families in the middle class.

“Ron and his mentor turned frienemy, Donald J. Trump, have the same posture on helping middle class families: they just don’t care,” Newsom said.

The California governor also touted the Biden administration’s record and said that Americans have to “vote for democracy” in the 2024 election.

Ron DeSantis claimed that grocery prices have gone up “way more than 10%,” saying they’ve gone up “50%, 75% and maybe 100%.” 

Facts first: DeSantis’ claim about grocery price increases is false.  

While the price of food has risen significantly over the last few years amid rising inflation, grocery prices have not gone up between 50% and 100%. According to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, food prices in the US increased 2.9% for the year ended in November. Overall, food prices have risen 26% since November 2019. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he wasn't going to "trash" New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu for his endorsement of his 2024 rival Nikki Haley.  

“Unlike some people running, if someone doesn't endorse me, I'm not gonna go trash them,” DeSantis said, clearly referencing former President Donald Trump, who slammed Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds after she endorsed DeSantis. 

DeSantis criticized Haley for “getting funded by liberal Democrats,” specifically mentioning the LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman and JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. 

Speaking directly to the audience, DeSantis said, “Guess what, guys, those folks do not want to see conservative change in this country.” 

DeSantis also attacked Haley for recently calling for name verification on social media, a proposal that he previously called “dangerous and unconstitutional.��

“She's going to demand that everyone produce their name on social media,” DeSantis said. “Conservatives have been singled out for expressing opinions on social media. People have been canceled. They've lost jobs over this. Why would she want to put our own people under there? So, I think there's so many problems with her policy positions.”

At the time, Haley’s campaign said her proposal was intended to “crackdown on Chinese, Iranian, and Russian bots.”

DeSantis characterized Haley as “reflective of the old, failed Republican establishment of yesteryear.” 

“We do not need to go back to that, but I will say this, Chris is great. He's done a great job as governor. He's a great campaigner. And I look forward to campaigning with him next fall in New Hampshire, as the Republican nominee," he said.

Former Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized the former President Donald Trump's administration for granting the Satanic Temple religious classification under the Internal Revenue Service in 2019.

CNN's town hall moderator Jake Tapper clarified that the 2019 move does not mean the government necessarily supports the group, to which DeSantis agreed.

The group is now receiving attention in Iowa after organizers put up a satanic holiday display in the state capitol and some Republicans are calling for the display to come down.

DeSantis claimed that the ruling under the Trump administration possibly gave the group "a legal leg to stand on," while going on to say that he does not believe the organization is a religion "that the founding fathers were trying to create."

"In Florida, I don't think we probably would have had it up," he said.