DeSantis ramps up attacks on Trump, hitting him on crime and Covid
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis escalated his hostilities with former President Donald J. Trump on Friday, arguing that his Republican presidential rival was weak on crime and immigration, accusing him of handing over critical decision-making during the coronavirus pandemic to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci.
In an appearance with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, Mr. DeSantis accused Mr. Trump, the GOP frontrunner, of “going left” on criminal justice and immigration issues after winning the party’s base in 2015 and 2016.
He pledged to repeal the so-called First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice measure signed into law by Mr. Trump in 2018 that expands parole programs and changes criminal laws, including mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.
“He passed a bill, basically an escape bill,” Mr. DeSantis said. “It has brought dangerous people out of prison who have now offended a number of people and really hurt them a lot.”
This year, The New York Times reported that Mr. DeSantis and his allies saw the criminal law bill, which Mr. Trump signed at the urging of his son-in-law Jared Kushner — and immediately regretted — as an area of political weakness, and that Mr. DeSantis had indicated he would use it in the nomination battle. The bill is unpopular with sections of Trump’s hard core.
But for Mr. DeSantis, attacking Mr. Trump over the First Step Act is potentially complicated. DeSantis himself voted for the first draft of the bill while in Congress, and Trump allies have tried to emphasize that fact.
“So now swampy politician Ron DeSanctimonious is claiming he voted for it before he voted against it,” Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Mr. Trump, said in a statement. “He sounds just like John Kerry. What a fake! He can’t walk away from his disastrous, embarrassing and low-energy campaign announcement. Rookie fouls and unforced fouls – that’s who he is.
(Mr. DeSantis’s allies note that the version of the bill he voted for looked significantly different, and that the final version passed when he was no longer in the House.)
When Mr. Shapiro asked Mr. DeSantis about Mr. Trump’s recent criticism that crime under his watch had increased in Florida, the former president’s adopted state, Mr. DeSantis responded angrily, saying that Mr. Trump’s policies undermined public order.
Mr. DeSantis stepped up his attacks on his former ally, whom he had avoided directly criticizing for months, less than 48 hours after entering the race in a bumpy Twitter event.
And as Mr. DeSantis appears to be bending to the right on issues such as crime, some of his campaign’s internal strategy is coming to light.
At a fundraising rally in Miami on Thursday, donors bombarded Mr. DeSantis’ top campaign aides with questions about his policy positions and how to present them to other Republicans, according to a leaked audio recording. posted online by the Florida Politics website.
A donor asked a question about the shift to the right, to which a campaign official eventually replied, “We just have to win a primary to be in a general.”
The donors and officials also discussed how to talk to Republicans who support abortion rights. (Mr. DeSantis signed a six-week Florida abortion ban last month, which includes limited exceptions, while Mr. Trump was hesitant to support a federal ban.)
An employee offered a possible answer.
“Abortion is safe, legal and rare in Florida,” he said, repeating a phrase coined by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. “It’s not forbidden,” he added. “It’s limited.”
In his interview with Mr. Shapiro on Friday, Mr. DeSantis attempted to present himself as staunch on illegal immigration, saying that Mr. Trump attacked him for opposing the amnesty bill in Congress.
He also blamed Mr. Trump for his administration’s handling of the 2020 coronavirus outbreak, particularly the level of influence exerted by Dr. Fauci, the longtime top infectious disease expert and the face of the federal government’s pandemic response.
Dr. Fauci, who retired in January, has been a frequent target of Republican attacks over issues such as remote learning, stay-at-home and vaccine mandates.
“He responded by elevating Anthony Fauci and really turning the reins over to Dr. Fauci, and I think with terrible consequences for the United States,” Mr. DeSantis said. “I was the leader in this country fighting back against Fauci. We kicked him every step of the way.”
He said Dr. Fauci should have been fired, but Mr. Trump had honored him.
“I think the fact that Donald Trump gave Anthony Fauci a presidential commendation on Trump’s last day in office, that was a blow to millions of people in this country who have been harmed by Fauci’s lockdowns,” Mr. DeSantis said.
A day earlier, in a post from Mr. Trump on his Truth Social platform, the former president denounced Mr. DeSantis for Florida’s response to the pandemic. He said even former New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo had done a better job of limiting the loss of life from the virus than Mr. DeSantis.
Mr DeSantis described Mr Trump’s claim as “very bizarre” and said it suggested he would redouble his actions if another pandemic came along.