Closing arguments: Trump, fellow Republican White House hopefuls blitz Iowa with caucuses 1 week away

On the penultimate weekend before the first-in-the-nation Iowa Republican caucuses, and on the three-year anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, former President Donald Trump, whose false claims of election fraud inspired those attacks on the Capitol, campaigned in Iowa as the front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

Trump’s fellow Republican candidates — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, and Ohio biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — also campaigned across the state this weekend with the hopes of forging an 11th-hour surge that would close the significant polling gap between themselves and Trump.

The busy weekend of campaigning gave Iowa Republicans one more healthy dose of the candidates’ pitches before the Jan. 15 caucuses.

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Donald Trump

At a campaign event on the Des Moines Area Community College campus in Newton, and on the anniversary of the insurrection that resulted in $2.7 million in damage to the U.S. Capitol and led to the deaths of at least two people, Trump continued to make disproved claims of election fraud and referred to the Jan. 6 rioters as “hostages.”

By contrast, Trump referred to an increase in migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border as an insurrection, while suggesting the Jan. 6 rioters acted “peacefully and patriotically.”

In a wide-ranging two-hour speech, Trump rarely was on script as he mused about Joe Biden, the Civil War, his primary opponents and his four criminal indictments.

Trump is leading polls in Iowa by more than 30 points as the deluge of ads and campaign rallies from DeSantis and Haley have done little to eat into his support. But, cautious of repeating mistakes from 2016, Trump’s campaign is making a concerted effort to let his rally attendees know how, when and where to caucus in the final days before the contest.

Jason Hasbrouck and Josh Barrett, both of Maxwell, Iowa, are the kind of voters Trump’s “Commit to Caucus” events are designed to turn out. Both are enthusiastic about Trump, but neither Hasbrouck, who is 46 years old, nor Barrett, who is 47, has participated in a Republican caucus before, and they know little about how caucuses work.

Before the Newton event, Hasbrouck said he doesn’t know if he’s going to caucus, but that if he learned more at the event he might consider it. He and Barrett said they think Trump has the backing of Iowa Republicans.

“I’ve worked my whole life, I have no idea what the caucuses are, and I’ve lived here my entire life,” he said.

Conscious of a segment of voters in the same boat, the Trump campaign has littered its events with pamphlets and signage explaining how a caucus works and where attendees can find their caucus location. In Newton, the campaign played an animated video that took viewers through the steps needed to participate in the caucuses.

Trump, too, made sure to encourage caucus participation multiple times during his two-hour remarks in Newton on Saturday.

“You gotta get out and vote,” he told the crowd. “And if you do, you’ll see numbers, as big as the numbers that are being projected, you’ll see numbers bigger than that.”

While most of his fire was focused on Biden in Newton, Trump occasionally skewered his Republican primary opponents, saying they were unelectable, beholden to special interests and would get the U.S. mired in war.

“Ron DeSanctimonious, Nikki Haley and the rest of the pack will never do what it takes to secure the border, because they’re owned by big money, Wall Street, establishment donors,” he said. “Now Ron’s lost most of them because he’s failed … You need a little personality to do this stuff. It helps to have a little personality.”

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Ron DeSantis

At events in Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Ankeny, DeSantis continued to tout his strong record of delivering conservative results as governor of Florida.

“I’m the only one running who has a record of delivering on 100 percent of my promises,” DeSantis said during brief remarks to a packed crowd of more than 200 people at a Cedar Rapids diner.

That list, according to DeSantis, includes lowering taxes while maintaining budget surpluses used to pay off state debt, signing into law parental rights and school choice measures that prohibited Florida schools from teaching about gender identity or sexual orientation in elementary school, and banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at Florida’s public universities.

“Donald Trump is running for his issues. Nikki Haley’s running for her donors’ issues. I’m running for your issues and your family’s issues, and to turn this country around,” DeSantis said, using what has become a common line in his campaign stump speech.

In Ankeny, DeSantis expanded on that during an interview with The Gazette just before an event at a local restaurant.

“I mean, (Trump) bragged about that when people think of his candidacy, they think of this idea of retribution. But that is more personal to him, rather than dealing with the issues that are really affecting people in a really big way,” DeSantis told The Gazette.

“And unfortunately, there are issues that are front and center now that (Trump) promised to fix and didn’t fix,” DeSantis added, alleging Trump failed to complete a security wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, did not deport enough people who migrated to the U.S. illegally, failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act federal health care law — which requires an act of Congress — and failed to “drain the swamp,” using a phrase Trump often employed during his 2016 campaign.

“Talk is cheap. The slogans, doing political rallies, all that stuff, it doesn’t matter unless you actually deliver it,” DeSantis said. “So people can have confidence in me. When I tell you I’m going to do something, I'm going to follow through on it.”

In Davenport, DeSantis was asked by a member of the crowd if he became president, how he would handle Jan. 6 rioters. DeSantis did not talk specifics, but said he would “end the weaponization of federal power.”

“We are going to hold people in those agencies accountable, and when people, if they have used their power when I’m president, I’m firing these people,” DeSantis said.

Another person asked how DeSantis how he would handle the epidemic of gun violence in the U.S., and DeSantis mentioned the school shooting last week in Perry in which a sixth-grader was killed and seven other students and staff were injured.

“Schools need to be safe,” DeSantis said. “The shooter here, it seems like, had some mental health issues, and clearly was not even an adult. So in terms of the firearm — I know that the left and Biden are all about rolling out their agenda against firearms, but he was not legally allowed to have this, so I don’t know how it happened.”

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Nikki Haley

With just a week before the Iowa caucuses, Haley said she knows what Iowans are looking forward to most.

“You’re ready for the commercials to go away,” she said, getting laughs and nodding heads at Field Day Brewing in North Liberty.

Haley spoke briefly to more than 200 people at the brewery and restaurant, where she was introduced by New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu.

“We have done over 150 town halls in this race and we’ve answered every question, shaken every hand,” Haley said. “But now’s the time you say, ‘What do I get if this happens?’’

If elected president, Haley said she will, among other things, balance the budget, claw back unspent COVID relief money, eliminate gas and diesel taxes, make sure K-12 schools have vocational programming, keep trans women from competing in sports against other women, stop trading with China unless the country can cut off the flow of fentanyl to the U.S., and support the renewable fuel standard.

The former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor got boisterous applause when she said the U.S. should impose term limits on elected officials and said the U.S. can’t survive “four more years of chaos” if Trump is elected.

But other lines of her stump speech that might be popular elsewhere passed without a clap in North Liberty, which is part of the Democratic stronghold of Johnson County.

“We will go back to the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy and never let anyone set foot on U.S. soil that we haven’t processed and instead of catch and release we’ll go to catch and deport,” she said.

Haley held up a form asking Iowans to commit to caucus for her on Jan. 15.

“Don’t complain about what happens in a general election if you don’t play in this caucus,” she said.

Jessica Klein, 40, of Tiffin, plans to caucus for Haley, but was hoping the candidate would address the Perry school shooting.

“As a mom of four, it’s important that candidates address that it’s becoming an increasing problem for our country,” she said. “I do hope any candidate will take on a smarter approach to gun management. Not necessarily banning guns, but managing access to them.”

Haley did not talk about firearms in her speech, nor did she say she supported gun control when Klein asked her about it afterward, Klein said. Instead, the candidate talked about the need to improve mental health care.

Later on Saturday, Haley visited a Bettendorf restaurant and bar, the Tangled Wood, where she kept to a brief stump speech and took photos with attendees.

Xenya Mucha, 68, of LeClaire, said she appreciates Haley’s stance on continuing support for Ukraine. Mucha’s parents came to the U.S. from Ukraine, and her now-94-year-old mother is watching war again in her home country.

“It’s a democracy that’s struggling to survive, that is relying on its allies for support,” Mucha said. “If we don’t, it doesn’t stand a chance of survival. That’s not what we should be doing to our allies.”

Mucha said she plans to caucus for Haley on Jan. 15, but is sure that if Trump captures the nomination, and he faces Biden, she’ll pick the Democrat.

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Vivek Ramaswamy

Addressing a few dozen people Saturday morning at the Quad City Veterans Outreach Center in Davenport, Ramaswamy pitched himself as an outsider business owner running to finish Trump’s work.

Ramaswamy also told the audience he would pardon “every peaceful Jan. 6 protester” on his first day in office.

More than 1,200 people have been charged with federal crimes in the riot, from misdemeanor offenses like trespassing to felonies such as assault. About 170 people have been convicted in a trial, more than 700 people pleaded guilty, and two have been acquitted. More than 720 people have received sentences, more than half of which included incarceration.

Ramaswamy later told a reporter he would decide on a case-by-case basis, and would pardon anyone not charged with a violent crime.

Ramaswamy also said veterans deserve better care than what the U.S. currently shows them. He said veterans should have “medical choice” including access to psychedelics such as ayahuasca, ketamine, or psilocybin for medical purposes.

“That’s spicy for the Republican Party,” Ramaswamy said. “I don’t care. That’s the truth of what we actually stand for.”

Ramaswamy said he also supports a six-week paid decompression buffer for people who return from combat roles before reentering the civilian workforce, making active duty military pay or veteran benefits exempt from federal taxes, and that veterans shouldn’t have to drive long distances to access covered medical care at a VA location.

Ramaswamy pledged to cut the federal workforce by 75 percent and add term limits for civilian workers, end any “anti-carbon restriction,” stop spending on foreign wars and use the resources instead to fortify the country’s southern border, put in place stricter lobbying laws, and pass term limits for members of Congress.

To get term limits through, Ramaswamy said he would allow current members of Congress to be “grandfathered in” so the next person to hold their seat would be subject to term limits and lobbying restrictions.

Jeffrey Baker, 40, of Clinton, said he’s trying to decide between Ramaswamy and Trump. Baker planned to attend appearances later Saturday by Ron DeSantis in Davenport and Trump in Clinton.

“He (Ramaswamy) has a fresh perspective,” Baker said.

Baker said cutting the federal workforce and “fluff” in the system is important to him, and Ramaswamy seems to have a plan to make his vision a reality.

Marlene Negus, 74, of Davenport, said she initially planned to caucus for DeSantis, but thinks she has changed her mind the more she hears of Ramaswamy.

“I think we need a business owner to run this country,” Negus said. “Kind of like Trump. Trump couldn’t be bought. That’s the type of person we need.”

Negus said she thinks the former president would be too distracted to be able to get much done in another term, but that she would not hesitate to vote for Trump if he becomes the nominee.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com