Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged Iowa voters on Monday to reject former President Donald Trump in next month’s caucuses, saying that if Trump becomes the GOP nominee, the 2024 election will focus on him and not the failures of current President Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, Trump was trumpeting what an uphill climb DeSantis and the rest of the field face in trying to knock him out as the front-runner.
On his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump posted poll results showing him ahead of DeSantis, the current runner-up, by 60 points in Nevada, 57 points in Iowa, and 56 points overall nationally.
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DeSantis, at a campaign appearance with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, cautioned voters that if such polls hold up, Trump will give the Democrats and the left-wing media exactly what they want: a reason to shift the focus off of Biden.
“My fear in ’24 is, if Trump would be the candidate, that the Democrats will make this a referendum on him, on things that happened in the past,” said DeSantis. “What that will do is that will allow Biden to escape scrutiny.”
“There’s just a lot of people that will be motivated to come out to vote against Trump.”
“With me as the candidate,” he continued, “it’s going to be about your issues, not about my issues. It’ll be about this country’s future, not about the past. That is how we win when we’re able to frame the election. There’s no way we’ll let Biden hang out in the basement.”
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“Don’t give the media what they want. Don’t let them be able to turn the 2024 election into some circus where they’re going to hijack it and not focus on any of your issues. You know that’s what they want to do.”
“They’re trying to set it up. They’re trying to set up our primary to deliver that,” said DeSantis.
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