Fox News host Neil Cavuto on Friday interrupted some big talk from Ron DeSantis after the GOP presidential candidate, who placed second in the Iowa caucuses, claimed that his campaign “did it right” in the state.
The Florida governor received 21.2% of the vote earlier this week, losing in Iowa to former President Donald Trump. Onetime United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley took third place with 19.1% of the vote.
Cavuto, in an interview with DeSantis, noted that it’s “easy to pile on someone when they’re having a hard polling time,” before he listed off “piercing” headlines about the candidate’s campaign.
“I mean, you’re a human being,” Cavuto said. “You’re seeing and hearing all of that, and then Marco Rubio, your state senator, who says, ‘I’m supporting Donald Trump’ — I mean, that’s got to hurt.”
“No, I mean, that’s just part of the business,” DeSantis replied.
The Florida governor proceeded to talk up his performance in Iowa and GOP debates, as well as at other events ahead of the caucuses.
“We got the endorsement of the governor. We won the debates — the Miami debate, the [Democratic California Gov. Gavin] Newsom debate, the NewsNation debate, the CNN debate,” said DeSantis. “We did televised town halls, you know, got great response.”
“But you didn’t win a single county,” Cavuto interjected.
“But I also had — I mean, how many people would’ve been able to handle $50 million in ads? How many people would’ve been able to handle all the headwinds we did? We had a very uphill battle,” DeSantis said, referring to the spending and efforts by opponents to his campaign.
“We dug in and we executed, and we did run hard. We did do well, and what we got was traditionally what is considered good in a caucus.”
DeSantis is looking ahead to the New Hampshire primary next week as he trails Trump by nearly 44 percentage points in the state, according to an average of polls compiled by FiveThirtyEight.