DES MOINES, Iowa—Presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley fielded questions from voters 11 days before the Iowa caucus, appearing consecutively on the same stage in a town hall meeting on Jan. 4.
The televised event represented a narrowing of the Republican field, though the clear frontrunner for the nomination, former President Donald Trump, was not in attendance.
Mr. DeSantis, the incumbent governor of Florida appeared for the first hour of the primetime event. Ms. Haley, a former U.N. ambassador and two-term governor of South Carolina, took the second hour.
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley talked about how she might respond if she wins and her chief Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, is convicted of any crime.
President Trump is facing numerous indictments as well as civil cases and attempts to boot him from the ballot in several states.
She likened the situation to what happened with former President Richard Nixon, who resigned from the office amid the Watergate scandal. His successor, former President Gerald Ford, pardoned him.
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s past stance on China has been a matter of dispute on the campaign trail, with her opponents highlighting her support for Chinese investments in the Palmetto State while she was at its helm.
She defended that record in response to a question from CNN host Erin Burnett, saying that “every governor in the country was trying to recruit Chinese companies ten years ago,” and arguing that the U.S. now knows better about China’s intentions than it did then.
“China has never wanted to be like us... They never should have gotten into the World Trade Organization,” Ms. Haley said.
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley was asked point-blank by a town hall attendee about voters’ worries that she would be “more of a war hawk versus a peace-through-strength leader.”
After noting her husband’s South Carolina National Guard deployment, Ms. Haley leaned into her experience as the nation’s representative before the United Nations.
“Ukraine was one of our friends. They voted with us on almost everything,” she said.
Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley criticized former President Donald Trump’s foreign policy record.
The comments came after CNN’s host, Erin Burnett, asked Ms. Haley about whether her previous boss deserved the “chaos” she had claimed dogs him.
“Look at how he [Trump] deals with dictators,” she said, highlighting his past comments on Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
CNN Host Caitlin Collins asked Gov. Ron DeSantis about gay marriage, noting that another candidate, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, has expressed regret about previously opposing gay marriage.
The Florida governor treaded carefully, saying that the traditional definition of marriage “is just what marriage is with the church,” before adding that he “respect[s] the Supreme Court’s decision,” Obergefell v. Hodges.
“We’ve abided by that in Florida even though our constitution defines it as between a man and a woman,” he continued, before stressing an angle often used by post-Obergefell social conservatives now forced into a corner on a polarizing issue: religious liberty.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was also pressed on foreign policy, with a focus on one of Washington’s hottest hot potatoes: funding for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
It began with a query from Ames, Iowa, attorney Eric Eide about whether the United States should continue to sink resources into that conflict.
As is often the case, Mr. DeSantis leaned into talk of China and criticized some of Ukraine’s actions before concluding that “we need to bring this to a conclusion,” and again calling for European countries to pay more.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was quickly confronted with a question about former President Donald J. Trump’s significant polling lead during CNN’s town hall.
“What do you consider a winning performance?” one questioner, Curt Ellis of Grimes, Iowa, asked, after noting President Trump’s strength in those surveys.
“I’ve gotten to all 99 counties,” Mr. DeSantis responded, reiterating his frequent challenges to President Trump for failing to appear at various debates.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley will take part in back-to-back town-hall-style meetings in Iowa on Jan. 4, just 11 days before the Iowa caucuses, the first-in-the-nation presidential nominating contest.
The event, organized by CNN, features the two Republicans who have mounted the strongest challenge to former President Donald Trump, who continues to lead most national and Iowa polls by a wide margin.