DeSantis says Trump-Biden rematch would be referendum on former president

Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis claimed Tuesday evening that a 2024 rematch between former President Trump and President Biden would only be referendum on Trump’s legal woes.

“It raises the issue for Republicans: ‘What do we want the 2024 election to be about?’” DeSantis said during a Fox News town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, per The Associated Press. “If Donald Trump is the nominee, the election is going to be about legal issues, criminal trials, Jan. 6. It’ll be a referendum on him.”

DeSantis, the governor of Florida, also argued during the campaign event that the Iowa caucuses — set to begin Monday, Jan. 15 — could “upend” Trump’s lead in the polls for the GOP nomination.

“Ultimately, it’s the people that decide these, not the polls,” he said about elections. “I can tell you this: If Iowans come out and vote for me and caucus for me in large numbers, we’re building the operation to do that, those national polls will change.”

The governor was in the Hawkeye State making one of his last appeals to undecided voters. According to Iowa polling from The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, he is in second place, behind the former president.

Earlier Tuesday, DeSantis gave Florida’s State of the State address and declared a state of emergency after tornadoes hit the Fort Lauderdale area. He then boarded a plane for the town hall in Des Moines.

Further highlighting DeSantis’s point, Trump spent the day in a Washington, D.C., courtroom, as his attorneys attempted to persuade an appeals court panel that he is immune from the federal indictment alleging he conspired to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.