Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis slammed GOP presidential rival former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Thursday for claiming that the votes of Iowa caucus-goers must be “corrected” in New Hampshire.
The Florida Republican dubbed it a “slap in the face” to Iowa voters by Haley, who, he said, seems prepared to fail in the first GOP primary.
DeSantis was reacting to Haley’s comments at a town hall in New Hampshire, which votes after Iowa. Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, told the crowd, “You know, Iowa starts it. You know that you correct it … and then my sweet state of South Carolina brings it home.”
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“I think it’s a slap in the face to Iowans to say that they somehow need to be corrected. It’s almost as if like she’s acknowledging she’s not going to do well here, and so she’s blaming the voters,” DeSantis said in an interview with NBC News in Iowa. “That’s unacceptable.”
The Florida governor noted that he has visited all 99 counties in Iowa, where is betting big on upsetting former President Donald Trump.
And in his travels, DeSantis added, he has met plenty of people who are “hard-working, God-fearing, patriotic — they represent the backbone of this country.”
“They don’t need correcting. And for Nikki Haley to be in a different state and trying to virtue signal in ways that diminish the voters of Iowa — honest it was a mistake, but sometimes these gaffes are what people really think, and I think that’s what she really thinks,” DeSantis said.
Read: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds Rips Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley ‘No Corrections Needed’
“She’s phony.”
As an example, DeSantis noted that Haley last week, in a week filled with her verbal flubs, referred to Iowa Hawkeyes basketball superstar Caitlin Clark as “Caitlin Collins,” which seemed to refer to CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins.
“She’s trying to be relatable but just doesn’t get Iowa,” said DeSantis.
The governor also argued that Haley goes on a rhetorical adventure every time she goes “off script,” which should be a red flag for GOP voters, since the media fueled her rise and will one day strike back.
“As Republicans, you need to have a candidate that’s going to be able to handle this, because you are going to be put through the wood chipper by the corporate press the minute you’re going against a Democrat,” he said. “She’s just not going to be able to handle that.”
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