Fact checking Ron DeSantis’ CNN town hall in New Hampshire

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis participated in a CNN town hall Tuesday in New Hampshire ahead of the state’s upcoming primary.

The GOP presidential contender — who came in second behind former President Donald Trump during Monday’s caucus in Iowa — took questions from New Hampshire voters about a wide range of issues.

Here is a fact check of some of DeSantis’ claims during the town hall.

Haley’s attack ads

DeSantis touted his second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, ahead of former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. He beat her despite the fact that, according to him, she only spent money on TV ads that attacked him, giving former President Donald Trump a pass.

“She spent 100% of her money attacking me, and not one red cent attacking Donald Trump,” DeSantis claimed. “And I faced almost $50 million in total.
I got in second and she did not.”

Facts First: This is mostly true but needs context. Yes, DeSantis was the target of nearly all of the spending by Haley’s campaign and allied groups in Iowa. But they have spent millions of dollars hitting Trump in other states, including in New Hampshire, where she is more competitive in the latest polls.

The Florida governor’s complaints about Haley’s spending in Iowa are well-founded.

In the past year, Haley and her allies have devoted significantly more resources to attacking DeSantis instead of Trump. According to data from AdImpact, Haley’s campaign and allied super PACs have spent about $12.5 million on TV ads targeting DeSantis, with at least $9.8 million on ads airing in Iowa.

But according to AdImpact’s data, Haley and her allies have also spent about $2.9 million in the past year on TV ads criticizing Trump. Virtually all of these ads have aired in New Hampshire, not in Iowa.

SFA Fund, a super PAC supporting Haley, has spent over $500,000 airing an ad responding to some of Trump’s attacks, saying “one temper tantrum after another, his entire campaign, based on revenge.”

The same group has also spent over $1 million on another ad against Trump, saying, “Why is Donald Trump only attacking Nikki Haley? Because Trump knows Haley’s the only one who can beat him.”

From CNN’s David Wright and Marshall Cohen

Migrants housed in a NYC school

Asked about how he would address the issue of undocumented immigrants entering the US, DeSantis criticized New York City officials for shifting asylum seekers to a school for temporary shelter.

“New York City had to close a school,” he said. “You literally have kids told, ‘Don’t go to school,’ because they commandeered the school to be able to house illegal aliens.”

Facts First: DeSantis’ comment needs context. New York City Mayor Eric Adams and his administration moved 1,900 asylum seekers from a tent shelter in Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn to James Madison High School for one night last week to shield them from a storm. The high school students went to class remotely the following day and then returned to the Brooklyn school the day after that.

The one-day school closure sparked an outcry from parents and local politicians. Adams and city officials have struggled to handle and house the migrants that are being bused to New York, mainly from Texas, since the spring of 2022.

The mayor defended his use of the high school on ABC’s GMA3 later that week, saying, “We’ve always used our school buildings during emergencies.”

From CNN’s Tami Luhby 

Florida and the pandemic

DeSantis criticized former President Donald Trump’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and accused him of “turning over the government” to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022. He then claimed it was Florida that “dragged this country out of lockdown,” adding, “We made sure schools were open; we made sure businesses were open.”

Facts First: DeSantis’ claim is misleading at best. Before he became a vocal opponent of pandemic restrictions, DeSantis imposed significant restrictions on individuals, businesses and other entities in Florida in March 2020 and April 2020; some of them extended months later. He did then open up the state, with a gradual phased approach, but he did not keep it open from the start. 

DeSantis received criticism in March 2020 for what some critics perceived as a lax approach to the pandemic, which intensified as Florida beaches were packed during Spring Break. But that month and the month following, DeSantis issued a series of major restrictions.

For example, DeSantis:

• Closed Florida’s schools, first with a short-term closure in March 2020 and then, in April 2020, with a shutdown through the end of the school year. (In June 2020, he announced a plan for schools to reopen for the next school year that began in August. By October 2020, he was publicly denouncing school closures, calling them a major mistake and saying all the information hadn’t been available that March.)  
• On March 14, 2020, announced a ban on most visits to nursing homes. (He lifted the ban in September 2020.)  
• On March 17, 2020, ordered bars and nightclubs to close for 30 days and restaurants to operate at half-capacity. (He later approved a phased reopening plan that took effect in May 2020, then issued an order in September 2020 allowing these establishments to operate at full capacity.)  
• On March 17, 2020, ordered gatherings on public beaches to be limited to a maximum of 10 people staying at least six feet apart, then, three days later, ordered a shutdown of public beaches in two populous counties, Broward and Palm Beach. (He permitted those counties’ beaches to reopen by the last half of May.)  
• On March 20, 2020, prohibited “any medically unnecessary, non-urgent or non-emergency” medical procedures. (The prohibition was lifted in early May 2020.)  
• On March 23, 2020, ordered that anyone flying to Florida from an area with “substantial community spread” of the virus, “to include the New York Tri-State Area (Connecticut, New Jersey and New York),” isolate or quarantine for 14 days or the duration of their stay in Florida, whichever was shorter, or face possible jail time or a fine. Later that week, he added Louisiana to the list. (He lifted the Louisiana restriction in June 2020 and the rest in August 2020.)  
• On April 3, 2020, imposed a statewide stay-home order that temporarily required people in Florida to “limit their movements and personal interactions outside of their home to only those necessary to obtain or provide essential services or conduct essential activities.” (Beginning in May 2020, the state switched to a phased reopening plan that, for months, included major restrictions on the operations of businesses and other entities; DeSantis described it at the time as a “very slow and methodical approach” to reopening.)

From CNN’s Daniel Dale

Pro-LGBTQ aid to Bangladesh

When making the case for lower government spending, DeSantis claimed that taxpayer dollars are “going overseas to do things like promote ‘transgenderism’ in Bangladesh.”

Facts First: This needs context. While there have been US Agency for International Development programs supporting LGBTQ rights in Bangladesh, they make up a sliver of the federal agency’s budget.

The specific USAID program involved in these efforts was launched under the Trump administration in June 2018 and ended in June 2021, and USAID records indicate that the program cost $849,535 over the three years.

In the 2021 fiscal year, when it ended, USAID spent almost $30 billion, according to the agency. That means the pro-LGBTQ program in Bangladesh was less than 0.003% of the agency’s spending for that year.

There is at least one additional USAID program supporting LGBTQ rights in Bangladesh, which was launched last year. In response to CNN’s inquiries, USAID spokespeople wouldn’t provide a figure for the cost of the program, which is set to run for five years.

From CNN’s Marshall Cohen and Kaanita Iyer  

DeSantis on Iranian sanctions

When answering a voter’s question on how he will deal with Iran if elected president, DeSantis attempted to contrast himself from President Joe Biden, who DeSantis claimed “relaxed sanctions on Iran.”

Facts First: This claim needs context. 

The Biden administration has lifted a handful of Iranian sanctions, which they said were removed because of “verified change in status or behavior.” However, Biden has also retained and imposed numerous other sanctions on Iran. The Biden administration has issued waivers to allow Iraq to purchase electricity from Iran – something the Trump administration did as well.

From CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and Kaanita Iyer  

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