CNN town hall with Ron DeSantis

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned in a CNN town hall Tuesday night in New Hampshire that Republicans are “going to lose” the 2024 election if they nominate former President Donald Trump.

The day after finishing a distant second to Trump – though just ahead of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – in Iowa’s caucuses, the Florida governor fielded questions in New Hampshire at a town hall moderated by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

He used the event to make the case that with a conservative policy record, he would be better able than Haley to consolidate Republican support; and with less personal baggage, he’d be better positioned than Trump to win a general election.

Here are some key takeaways from the event:

Read up on more key takeaways from the town hall.

Asked about how he would address the issue of undocumented immigrants entering the US, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized New York City officials for shifting asylum seekers to a school for temporary shelter. 

“New York City had to close a school,” he said. “You literally have kids told, ‘Don't go to school,’ because they commandeered the school to be able to house illegal aliens.” 

Facts First: DeSantis’ comment needs context. New York City Mayor Eric Adams and his administration moved 1,900 asylum seekers from a tent shelter in Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn to James Madison High School for one night last week to shield them from a storm. The high school students went to class remotely the following day and then returned to the Brooklyn school the day after that. 

The one-day school closure sparked an outcry from parents and local politicians. Adams and city officials have struggled to handle and house the migrants that are being bused to New York, mainly from Texas, since the spring of 2022.  

The mayor defended his use of the high school on ABC’s GMA3 later that week, saying, “We’ve always used our school buildings during emergencies.” 

At CNN's town hall Tuesday night, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis touted his second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, ahead of former South Carolina Gov. and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. He beat her despite the fact that, according to him, she only spent money on TV ads that attacked him, giving former President Donald Trump a pass.  

“She spent 100% of her money attacking me, and not one red cent attacking Donald Trump,” DeSantis claimed. “And I faced almost $50 million in total. I got in second and she did not.”  

Facts First: This is mostly true but needs context. Yes, DeSantis was the target of nearly all of the spending by Haley’s campaign and allied groups in Iowa. But they have spent millions of dollars hitting Trump in other states, including in New Hampshire, where she is more competitive in the latest polls.  

The Florida governor’s complaints about Haley’s spending in Iowa are well-founded.  

In the past year, Haley and her allies have devoted significantly more resources to attacking DeSantis instead of Trump. According to data from AdImpact, Haley’s campaign and allied super PACs have spent about $12.5 million on TV ads targeting DeSantis, with at least $9.8 million on ads airing in Iowa.    

But according to AdImpact’s data, Haley and her allies have also spent about $2.9 million in the past year on TV ads criticizing Trump. Virtually all of these ads have aired in New Hampshire, not in Iowa.   

SFA Fund, a super PAC supporting Haley, has spent over $500,000 airing an ad responding to some of Trump’s attacks, saying “one temper tantrum after another, his entire campaign, based on revenge.”   The same group has also spent over $1 million on another ad against Trump, saying, “Why is Donald Trump only attacking Nikki Haley? Because Trump knows Haley's the only one who can beat him.”  

When answering a voter’s question in tonight's CNN town hall on how he will deal with Iran if elected president, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attempted to contrast himself from President Joe Biden, who DeSantis claimed “relaxed sanctions on Iran.” 

Facts First: This claim needs context. 

The Biden administration has lifted a handful of Iranian sanctions, which they said were removed because of “verified change in status or behavior.” However, Biden has also retained and imposed numerous other sanctions on Iran. The Biden administration has issued waivers to allow Iraq to purchase electricity from Iran – something the Trump administration did as well. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the United States is “not a racist country” but has “had challenges with how race was viewed” as he responded Tuesday night to comments made by former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who said the US has “never been a racist country.”

The presidential candidate was asked during CNN’s town hall in Manchester, New Hampshire, about Haley’s comments from an interview Tuesday morning, in which she responded to a question about the Republican Party being a “racist party” by making a larger point about her view on race relations historically in the US. 

When asked to respond, DeSantis initially did not directly answer the question, instead criticizing diversity, equity and inclusion policies that he says promote unfair racial bias. He went on to say the US “is not a racist country” currently. 

When pressed again by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to respond to Haley’s comment, DeSantis pointed to the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dred Scott case as an example of the racial discrimination “challenges” in US history. 

When making the case for lower government spending, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed that taxpayer dollars are "going overseas to do things like promote ‘transgenderism’ in Bangladesh."  

Facts First: This needs context. While there have been US Agency for International Development programs supporting LGBTQ rights in Bangladesh, they make up a sliver of the federal agency’s budget. 

The specific USAID program involved in these efforts was launched under the Trump administration in June 2018 and ended in June 2021, and USAID records indicate that the program cost $849,535 over the three years. 

In the 2021 fiscal year, when it ended, USAID spent almost $30 billion, according to the agency. That means the pro-LGBTQ program in Bangladesh was less than 0.003% of the agency’s spending for that year.  

There is at least one additional USAID program supporting LGBTQ rights in Bangladesh, which was launched last year.

In response to CNN’s inquiries, USAID spokespeople wouldn’t provide a figure for the cost of the program, which is set to run for five years. 

During the CNN town hall on Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized former President Donald Trump’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and accused him of “turning over the government” to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022. He then claimed it was Florida that “dragged this country out of lockdown,” adding, “We made sure schools were open; we made sure businesses were open.”

Facts First: DeSantis’ claim is misleading at best. Before he became a vocal opponent of pandemic restrictions, DeSantis imposed significant restrictions on individuals, businesses and other entities in Florida in March 2020 and April 2020; some of them extended months later. He did then open up the state, with a gradual phased approach, but he did not keep it open from the start.  

DeSantis received criticism in March 2020 for what some critics perceived as a lax approach to the pandemic, which intensified as Florida beaches were packed during Spring Break. But that month and the month following, DeSantis issued a series of major restrictions.

For example, DeSantis:  

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that as a leader, he knows he is going to make decisions not everyone agrees with, but emphasized the importance of civil discourse in politics.

“We have got to start being able to have conversations and disagreeing, without hating each other," he said during Tuesday night's CNN town hall.

The Florida governor was answering a question from Gavan Fink, a student at Dartmouth, who asked how the GOP candidate would advocate for thoughtful policy conversations in a time when politics can be so polarizing.

He said he doesn’t take politics personally and he thinks there is more that unites people than divides.

Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis participated in a CNN town hall in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, a day after he finished second in Iowa's GOP caucuses.

See some of the best photos from the event: