Ron DeSantis fired an arctic blast at Donald Trump, saying his rival ‘phoned it in’ from Mar-a-Lago as the Florida governor got back on Iowa’s icy roads to meet with supporters still digging out from a blizzard amid a biting wind chill and sub-zero temperatures.
‘We’re not stopping. I do have my winter coat. We have other layers. I know it’s going to get even colder,’ DeSantis told supporters after speaking to a crowd of supporters in Council Bluffs, with the outside temperature at -5.
‘We’re in, we’re showing up. Donald Trump has phoned it in. He’s going to be in Mar-a-Lago. It’s probably 75 degrees there,’ he sneered. ‘We’re going to be at negative temperatures talking, making the case to Iowa voters Monday night,’ he said.
It was a cold frontal attack on the front-runner who DeSantis has been accused of going easy on during a campaign where he trails the former president by more than 30 points in pre-caucus polls.
He also accused Trump of running on ‘his issues’ and says his focus will be on 2020, not the future. ‘If he would be the nominee, the focus will be on the legal issues. The criminal trials on criminal convictions, January 6, all of that plays into the Democrats’ hands, into Biden’s hands or whoever they end up running,’ he said.
DeSantis was back on the trail despite warnings of hazardous conditions after a blizzard slammed into the state. His top backers looked to the sky for metaphors to fire up his supporters.
Ron DeSantis said rival Donald Trump ‘phoned it in from Mar-a-Lago’ after Trump nixed planned Saturday events, and DeSantis scheduled a series of events
‘It’s 40 below, are you ready to go?’ Florida first lady Casey DeSantis told a crowd of DeSantis supporters in Council Bluffs.
‘You’ve got a few challenges out there. It’s going to be pretty cold. But we are tough resilient Iowans we care about this country,’ Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has endorsed DeSantis, told a crowd who came out to see the Florida governor.
‘We need to be safe. Layer up. And if you show up, he will be the winner Monday night,’ she said.
DeSantis pointed to his roots in the Sunshine State, but said the biting weather could provide an opportunity for his campaign, where polls have him far behind Donald Trump.
‘Look, it’s not going to be easy. Negative 20 wind chill, negative 30. I mean, I’ve never been in those temperatures – even people that have grown up in the Midwest, this is significant,’ he said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was back on the campaign trail Saturday, after holding two events on Friday.
‘But you have the opportunity to brave those elements. Go and caucus and you’re never going to have a chance to have your vote count for as much,’ he told a crowd of about 50 supporters at the Grass Wagon, events center in Council Bluffs.
‘You’re going to pack so much punch,’ he told them.
‘We don’t know how many people are going to turn out. It’s going to be a relatively small number given that the future of our country is at stake,’ he added.
DeSantis, who drove in from Des Moines Saturday morning, sought and received props for campainging.
‘I’m a Florida boy. Born and bread. And yet here I am in negative temperatures. I am not going to be canceling, if people are willing to come out and hear from me I’m going to show up,’ he said.
Former President Donald Trump is scrapping planned events in Iowa Saturday and part of Sunday amid a blizzard and bone-chilling wind chill predictions. He said ‘maybe that’s good, because our people are more committed than anybody else’ in Monday’s Iowa Caucuses
‘You’re going to see me everywhere. You’ve got to earn the vote,’ he said.
He was picking up on a Friday pitch where he cobbled together a last-minute event even after rival Nikki Haley scrubbed hers and moved them online.
‘We can handle the snow even though we’re a Florida-based campaign,’ DeSantis said while meeting with his supporters in Des Moines.
Friday evening, the Trump campaign announced that he was scrubbing his Saturday events.
‘One way or another I’m getting there,’ Trump told supporters in a video message to Iowans from West Palm beach, where his hometown was experiencing balmy temperatures. ‘You have the worst weather, I guess, in recorded history,’ Trump added.
Then Trump shifted the the political implications, amid much speculation by the media about who it would benefit. ‘But maybe that’s good, because our people are more committed than anybody else, so maybe it’s actually a good thing for us,’ he said.
He had plans to fly into Des Moines on Saturday night. ‘It’s going to be a little bit of a trek. Nobody knows exactly how we’re going to get there,’ he said.
As he addressed his backers, DeSantis took a few shots at Trump over his comments about COVID in a Fox News town hall Wednesday.
‘Donald Trump used to brag he shut down the greatest economy of the world. He said he shut it down and he saved all these lies. … now he’s saying the opposite,’ said DeSantis.
‘He basically said oh, I’m federalist, I had nothing to do with Fauci,’ DeSantis said. ‘And then he blamed me for Fauci,’ he said, blasting the NIH infectious disease expert.
‘Literally I was the one who was selling Dump Fauci t-shirts for this thing.’ He said Trump was ‘just try to gaslight people.’
‘He thinks you’re stupid. He doesn’t think you can realize what he’s saying is totally totally false,’ he fumed.
Among the DeSantis backers who showed up was Richard Buman, 49, a Catholic conservative who likes DeSantis’ positions on education and on abortion. ‘His response to the coronavirus BS was right on,’ he said. Buman, from Harlan Iowa, shared his own skepticism about the efficacy of vaccines, calling Trump ‘disingenuous.’