A protester stormed the stage during Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ televised town hall in Iowa on Tuesday, briefly disrupting proceedings while shouting, “No to oil money.”
The disruptor was able to unfurl a medium-sized banner in front of the White House hopeful before being quickly removed from the stage at the Des Moines event moderated by Fox News hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.
“You know, you live and learn with these people. Okay?” DeSantis joked amid the commotion. “Okay. Alright. Well, guys, that was a mistake. You didn’t understand that well.”
The interruption did not appear to faze DeSantis, who, as soon as the scene was resolved, continued his line of thinking on abortion, attempting to distinguish himself from former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on the issue.
The protester chanted “No to oil money” before being removed from the stage. AP
“I think he has indulged in some of these leftist tropes. [about abortion]”DeSantis said of Haley, who has tied or surpassed the Florida governor in several Iowa polls since December.
“She has chastised pro-lifers, saying, you know, ‘You shouldn’t talk about imprisoning women.’ Nobody is talking about it,” DeSantis said. “I haven’t met any pro-lifers who have ever talked about that. That is a trope that the left and the media will use and yet she has allowed it.”
With less than a week until the Jan. 15 caucuses, DeSantis trails Haley in the race for second place in the Hawkeye State by a slim margin of 0.2 percentage points, according to a polling average from RealClearPolitics.
Ron DeSantis touted his visits to all 99 Iowa counties during his town hall Tuesday, trips on which his wife Casey and the couple’s three children regularly accompanied him. REUTERS
Trump, who has refused to debate his rivals in the Republican primaries, maintains a seemingly insurmountable lead of 35.6% in Iowa, according to the poll aggregator.
DeSantis, however, claimed to enjoy his “underdog” position and said he likes “having lower expectations.”
“I’ve answered questions from everyone in every corner of the state,” DeSantis said. “These other candidates, you know, Donald Trump have not been willing to come and answer their questions. “I don’t think Nikki Haley got a fraction of these counties.”
DeSantis said he likes having “lower expectations” and being the “underdog” in the race. REUTERS
“So, I’ve been here. I have done well. I think Iowans appreciate it and we’ll do well, although to be honest, I like to have lower expectations.”
“I’ve been an underdog my whole life and everything I’ve done,” he added.
DeSantis doubled down on his preference for underdogs at a news conference after the town hall, telling reporters, “You guys are going to predict…I like being underestimated.”
His response came in response to a question about whether he can win Florida’s Republican primary on March 19, where Trump also leads by a wide margin.
“I think being the underdog suits me better…what’s going to happen is, starting with Iowa, you’re going to see a lot of fluidity in this, you know, once people start voting, you’re going to start to I look at that and I think as the “People look at all this,” he said.
“I am someone who can unite the party, the Conservatives trust me, we have a great record of concrete achievements, we are going to be able to do it.”
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