Ron DeSantis Accuses Donald Trump of Not Being “Pro-Life”

At a CNN town hall on Thursday, Governor Ron DeSantis concentrated his criticism of front-runner Donald Trump while making his argument for why he ought to be the party's candidate. DeSantis targeted Trump's abortion history in some of his most vehement attacks. When moderator Kaitlin Collins asked him whether he thought Trump was "pro-life," he replied, "Of course not." As per The Hill, he said, "I mean when you’re saying that pro-life protections are a ‘terrible thing,’ by definition, you are not pro-life."

DeSantis denounced Trump for requesting states to go into lockdown during the Covid outbreak, for not following through on his immigration and federal bureaucracy pledges, and for having self-serving objectives for campaigning for office. He added, "If you’ve run before, promised things, didn’t deliver, and then you’re running on the same things, wouldn’t it be reasonable to say, ‘Gee, I don’t know that I can take that to the bank going forward?’ Yes, I think the fact that he’s campaigning on something, that does not mean that he would actually follow through on it."

DeSantis went ahead and commented on Trump's character, "I’ll conduct myself in a way you can tell your kids, ‘That’s somebody you should emulate." Last year, Trump infuriated conservatives by calling Florida's six-week abortion restriction a "terrible thing" and a "terrible mistake." He said at the time he could "live with" the surgery being outlawed nationally by federal legislation or by individual states, but that "from a legal standpoint, I think it's probably better" if things were handled at the state level.

Apart from this, DeSantis discussed the issue of illegal immigration, emphasizing how Americans are being killed by fentanyl that is flooding the border. As per Fox News, He said, "How many fentanyl deaths are enough, are we just supposed to sit here and let this happen? I think a president not only has a right, I think you have a responsibility to fight back against these people. I am sick and tired of seeing the carnage in this country and in my travels through Iowa I've met angel parents, and people who have lost kids to fentanyl overdose. And a lot of times these are not drug addicts. These are maybe a college student that is stressed out during exams. So they buy a pill thinking it's going to help them get through the night and it turns out it's laced with fentanyl. That could be enough to poison that student to death. And so this is shattering families. It's shattering communities. The people in D.C., they just shrug their shoulders. They could care less about what's going on."

DeSantis discussed Joe Biden's foreign policy track record, criticizing him for the disorganized exit from Afghanistan. He added, "How he left Afghanistan was a total disgrace. I mean, it leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of veterans who've served over there. To see all that weaponry and all that stuff over there just taken by the Taliban, 13 people killed, that was humiliating for this country. But that sent a signal to people like Russia, to Iran, that now is the time to be able to start acting out. When I'm president, it's going to be different. You know, we're going to lay down very clear markers and people are going to know, don't mess with the USA."