Iowa campaign trail recap: Trump calls Jan. 6 rioters serving prison terms 'hostages'

Trump went on a lengthy explanation about how he endorsed DeSantis in the 2018 Florida governor's race. His conclusion: Without his backing, DeSantis might have ended up working at a pizza place. Or a law firm.

At DeSantis’ final event, where everything so far has been pretty par for the course, he was joined for the first time by Bob Vander Plaats and criticized Trump for not following through on promises.

“I believe in following through on your commitments and your promises. He didn’t do that ... not building the wall, elevating Fauci … there’s a lot of reasons why he should not be the nominee going forward," DeSantis said.

Trump was more than 3 hours late for his second rally of the day — a delay he told the audience once he arrived was caused by problems with a plane his campaign had chartered to take him between events.

Instead of flying on his own jet, Trump said his campaign had suggested using a smaller plane to save time but the plane had problems and delayed his arrival.

Former President Donald Trump barely mentioned the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol as he rallied supporters in Iowa on Saturday, but his speech was centered on countering President Joe Biden’s argument that the riot and Trump’s broader effort to overturn the 2020 election represent a grave threat to the republic.

“This guy goes around and says I’m a threat to democracy,” Trump said. “He’s a threat to democracy. ... You know, you can be grossly incompetent and be a threat to democracy.”

Trump faces federal election interference charges stemming from his well-documented campaign to stay in office after he lost. His efforts culminated in his loyalists assaulting police officers, storming the Capitol and hunting for lawmakers in a failed attempt to prevent electoral votes from being tallied on Jan. 6, 2021.

Read the full story here.

Voters at events today asked Ramaswamy about Covid-related conspiracy theories.

“My husband was killed in the hospital,” said an emotional elderly woman to Ramaswamy during the Q&A portion of the town hall. “He was murdered because he had not got the vaccine,” she added, before claiming doctors purposefully killed him by pumping him up with other medicines because he refused to get vaccinated.

Moments earlier, a woman asked Ramaswamy, “I have a lot of concerns, sir. One of them is Bill Gates. How are you going to control him?” Then, after listing off a second question, she remembered a third: “Did I say Epstein’s Island?”

“Well, it kind of relates to the first one,” quipped Ramaswamy.

Former President Donald Trump on Friday extended condolences following a school shooting in Iowa this week that left one dead and seven wounded before urging supporters to “move forward.”

“I want to send our support and our deepest sympathies to the victims and families touched by the terrible school shooting yesterday in Perry, Iowa,” Trump said during a campaign rally.

“It’s just horrible, so surprising to see it here. But have to get over it, we have to move forward,” he added.

Read the full story here.

Haley has a new ad airing in Iowa featuring Marlys Popma.

Popma announced her endorsement at a Haley town hall in November. Popma has worked on four presidential campaigns and has worn many organizational hats — including being the two-time president of Iowa Right to Life.

"Nikki will keep the radical left from ruining our culture," she says in the ad. "She won’t let boys play girls’ sports, and she’ll stop the assault on our values. Nikki’s a sister in Christ. She has guts. Nikki Haley will make us proud."

DeSantis held back-to-back retail stops in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with Reps. Thomas Massie and Chip Roy, first at Tommy’s West Restaurant and then at the Never Back Down field office, where he briefly shook hands and rushed to his next event in Ankeny.

Both Massie and Roy pitched DeSantis as a better alternative than Trump to the crowd of roughly 200 people gathered at Tommy’s West Restaurant. Both congressmen described instances in which Trump in their view made poor decisions, including his embrace of Anthony Fauci, and the spending bills passed during his administration.

A number of the Republican presidential candidates are refusing to commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election if President Joe Biden wins.

NBC News and The Des Moines Register sat down with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy this week in Iowa and asked all three of them if they would accept a Biden victory in November.

In particular, DeSantis’ and Ramaswamy’s reluctance to readily accept the possibility that Biden could achieve a legitimate victory reflects the continuing hold on the GOP of former President Donald Trump’s unfounded belief that the 2020 election was stolen from him — three years after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s win.

Read the full story here.

The Biden campaign is out with new criticism of Trump over a report by an Illinois radio station that Trump did not sign an oath promising not to try to overthrow the government.

According to WBEZ Chicago, the oath is a relic of the McCarthy Red Scare era and is still traditionally submitted with all ballot applications. The station reported that Trump signed the oath in 2016 and 2020.

“For the entirety of our nation’s history, presidents have put their hand on the Bible and sworn to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States — and Donald Trump can’t bring himself to sign a piece of paper saying he won’t attempt a coup to overthrow our government. We know he’s deadly serious, because three years ago today he tried and failed to do exactly that,” Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said in a statement.

“Yesterday near Valley Forge, President Biden made the forceful case that democracy and freedom itself is at stake this November. Donald Trump is proving him right every single day of this campaign.”

At least two Republicans opted to take to X to mock the anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol three years ago.

"Happy Entrapment Day," Ramaswamy wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Donald Trump Jr., the son of the former president, wrote "Happy Fake Insurrection Day!!! The first ever insurrection with armed tour guides and unarmed participants!"

Don Jr. and other Republicans have suggested that the armed rioters who assaulted police and threatened lawmakers were acting as tourists when they illegally entered the Capitol building.

Haley held her third town hall of the day with New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu by her side this afternoon at The Tangled Wood restaurant in Bettendorf, Iowa. The entire event lasted only 25 minutes and Haley took no questions from the audience, but did stay around to take pictures and meet with everyone.

She debuted a new line on Trump — saying he was “really good at breaking things; he just wasn’t good at fixing them.”

Trump, after delivering a lengthy speech here in Newton, Iowa, ignored my questions about Jan. 6.

What did I ask?

• Mr. President, do you regret any of your actions on January 6th?
• Do you regret any of your actions on January 6th?
• Mr. President, did you intend to stay in power on January 6th?

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider whether former President Donald Trump could be deemed ineligible to run for federal office again because of his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — a case that could have a seismic impact on the presidential election.

The justices will review a decision by the Colorado Supreme Court that said Trump could be barred from the Republican primary ballot in that state, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruling is likely to have national repercussions, potentially setting guidelines that would determine how every other state would handle the issue.

The brief order said the case would be argued on an accelerated schedule on Feb. 8, indicating that a ruling will follow soon after.

Read the full story here.

Trump just spoke for an hour and 53 minutes — seven minutes short of two hours — in a speech that rambled across myriad topics.

Speaking at a campaign event in Newton, Iowa, Trump offered a take on the Civil War.

“The Civil War was so fascinating. So horrible. It was so horrible. Was so fascinating — I’m just so attracted to seeing it — so many mistakes were made. I think you could have negotiated that. I thought, ‘This was something that could have been negotiated,’” Trump said. “But I think it’s, you know, Abraham Lincoln, of course if you negotiated it, you probably wouldn’t even know who Abraham Lincoln was.”

Haley for the second time today directly called out Trump for not debating, saying, “Why doesn’t he answer the question [on if Haley raised taxes]. Oh, that’s right. He won’t debate me. That’s why.”

In a slight pivot, Haley delivered a shorter stump speech than usual, but hit her key talking points including government spending and China. Instead of taking questions, she took photos and met one-on-one with attendees.

On the day of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, DeSantis was asked by a member of the audience at his second event of the day about “due process” for Jan. 6 “detainees.”

Earlier this week, DeSantis told NBC News’ Dasha Burns that “I’ve not had a single question in Iowa about Jan. 6” — not only was this the first question posed during this stop’s Q&A session, he was also asked about Jan. 6 on a call-in radio show just yesterday.

“So, look, anybody that is denied due process, I mean that’s a constitutional violation,” DeSantis said. “If you look at the Department of Justice, if you look at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, IRS, these agencies have become hyperpoliticized and they’re wielding their power disproportionately against people they don’t like, I think it’s a very broad problem.”

Speaking at a campaign rally in Newton, Iowa, Trump compared Democrats to the Chinese.

“These people are more dangerous than the so-called enemy in China,” Trump said.

Ramaswamy, who has long promised to tackle the national debt crisis, said he would increase military spending during a town hall in Clarence, Iowa. 

“I actually think we need to spend a little bit more on our military, but we need to spend it in the right way,” said Ramaswamy to a crowd of about 40 Iowans. Ramaswamy went on to say that the areas he would spend on are military presence on the southern and northern borders, as well as protection against EMP attacks.

Hutchinson has one event on the calendar in Iowa today: a 6 p.m. CT meet-and-greet in Waterloo.

Speaking to a group of young people in Des Moines, Iowa, Trump responded to Biden's speech yesterday in which he called the former president a threat to American democracy.

"He can’t put two sentences together. He can’t speak," Trump said. "He can, although yesterday he tried to play tough guy, you know, 'I’m a threat to democracy.' He’s a threat to democracy because he’s incompetent."

Republican Joe Pendergast, 70, of Des Moines, voted for Trump in the past two general elections but has decided to caucus for Haley due to the “chaos” the former president causes.

“It just got to be to the point where it was so detrimental, that it wasn’t worth it. And as a Trump supporter, having to defend some of those stupid things he said — I couldn’t do it anymore,” he told NBC News at a Haley town hall in Indianola, Iowa, on Saturday.

He says his Trump-supporting friends now think of him as a “traitor,” but that doesn’t stop him from engaging with them.

“I love a good argument. I just hate that we can’t discuss it and walk away OK. That’s what I don’t like,” Pendergast said. “I don’t like that it is so polarizing that we can’t even have a political discussion.”

After making an unscheduled appearance in Des Moines, Trump has two rallies today in Iowa. The first is at 1 p.m. CT in Newton and the second is at 4 p.m. CT in Clinton.

INDIANOLA, Iowa — Haley directly called out Trump today for not participating in Republican presidential primary debates, accusing him of “acting like Biden.”

While pushing back on negative ads from the Trump campaign and its aligned super PAC at a town hall in Indianola, Iowa, Haley said, “Why don’t we ask [Trump] to stop acting like Biden and hide and get on a debate stage and answer the question of why he proposed a 25 cent gas tax increase on all of us in 2018?”

With just nine days until the Iowa caucuses, Haley has stepped up her criticism of Trump — but made it clear later in her town hall this morning that she plans only to do so when the former president “lies about” her or has “done something wrong.”

“For those that want me to hit Trump more, I just am not going to do it,” she said to audience applause, adding politics is not “personal” for her.

Trump is currently speaking at a gathering of young Republicans in Des Moines at an event sponsored by Run Gen Z, a group that recruits young people to run for office.

DUBUQUE, Iowa — DeSantis harped on mental health and "gender ideology" as the reason behind the shooting at Perry High School earlier this week.

When a reporter pushed back in a gaggle following the event, DeSantis stood by his comments saying “this is a relatively new phenomenon where you’ve had shootings with folks of this profile.”

Earlier during the event, DeSantis said the left uses “mental health stuff to advance the woke agenda” and that kids used to bring rifles to school years ago, adding that, “we have issues with society that’s leading to some of this.”

DeSantis also responded to comments Trump made at a rally last night saying families in Perry have to “get over it” and “move forward,” to which DeSantis responded, “I wouldn’t tell them that they should just get over it because it’s tough.”

Haley has three events in Iowa today. The first was at 9 a.m. CT in Indianola. The second is at 12:30 p.m. CT in North Liberty. And the final event is at 3 p.m. CT in Bettendorf.

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Reflecting on her time apart from her newborn son while working as a doctor on the front lines of the Covid pandemic in New York City back in 2020, Apoorva Ramaswamy was in tears at a campaign event this morning.

“It’s always hard after you have a baby. But it’s especially hard when you’re having to ship your breast milk to, for two months to a different state,” she said. Her son was living in Ohio while she was battling the pandemic in New York.

The way Apoorva Ramaswamy reflects on the pandemic stands in stark contrast to her husband and the rest of the GOP presidential hopefuls who define Covid solely as an era of government overreach.

DeSantis joined Fox News’ Neil Cavuto this morning where he characterized himself as the “underdog” in Iowa ahead of the caucuses.

Asked about Haley telling NBC News that she would consider him for a running mate, DeSantis said he would never agree to the job.

"I am not going to accept that under any circumstances," he said.

DeSantis will hold five events in Iowa today. He started the day in Dubuque at 9 a.m. CT followed by an 10:45 a.m. CT event in Davenport. He’ll hold another event in Cedar Rapids at 1:45 p.m. CT and then will drop by a field office in the city. He’ll end the day in Ankeny with a 5:15 p.m. CT event.

DeSantis scored an easy point with Iowans this morning at a campaign stop in Dubuque when asked by a woman in the crowd if he could name the University of Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark.

“With all due respect to Ms. Collins,” DeSantis said, referring to the CNN anchor Kaitlin Collins, whom Nikki Haley mistakenly named instead of the senior guard, “if I need a buzzer-beater made I’m going with Clark over Collins.”

During a televised town hall with Collins earlier this week, DeSantis indirectly mocked Haley for the misstep, gifting the anchor a University of Iowa T-shirt bearing Clark’s last name and jersey number.

Yesterday, Ramaswamy had trouble naming Clark when asked the same question at a campaign stop in Maquoketa, Iowa, drawing gasps from the crowd.

Ramaswamy was asked on Friday to name the record-setting Iowa basketball player. He couldn't name Caitlin Clark, who shot to national prominence last year as the team made a run to the finals of the NCAA tournament.

Haley got dinged for flubbing Clark's name while campaigning in the state last month.

Ramaswamy is holding five campaign events in Iowa today. He started the day in Davenport at 9 a.m. CT. He will hold an 11:45 p.m. CT town hall in Clarence followed by another in Washington at 1:15 p.m. CT. Then he’ll head to Marengo for a 4:30 p.m. CT town hall and conclude the day with a rally in Cedar Rapids at 7 p.m. CT.

Laura Loomer, the right-wing provocateur and Trump loyalist who is a lead propagator of Jan. 6 conspiracy theories rode with Trump aboard his plane yesterday in Iowa to campaign in the state, per a source familiar with the arrangement.

In a post this morning, Loomer continued to push her vast web of conspiracy theories about the Capitol attack, claiming it to be an “inside job” to keep Trump from the White House.

Loomer, in her post this morning, wrote: “Personally, I think J6 should be a national holiday in which we celebrate the bravery of American patriots who protested a stolen election.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson has invited President Joe Biden to deliver his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on March 7.

“In this moment of great challenge for our country, it is my solemn duty to extend this invitation for you to address a Joint Session of Congress on Thursday, March 7, 2024, so that you may fulfill your obligation under the U.S. Constitution to report on the state of our union,” Johnson wrote in a letter to the president that he posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

The speech will fall two days after the Super Tuesday vote in the presidential primary, when more than a dozen states will cast ballots in the nominating contest. With minimal opposition in the primary, Biden is expected to be close to formally securing the nomination for re-election by that point. 

Read the full story here.

Far-right provocateur Laura Loomer was escorted out of a Haley event in Indianola, Iowa, by security before the event started.

She was talking back and forth with security for a while before eventually agreeing to leave, but it happened pretty dramatically. 

Haley held an event with New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu.

For Ramaswamy, it appears his contempt for Haley outweighs his love for Trump. 

“I’ve said that he would have my full support, but that’s on the expectation that he wouldn’t do something disastrous for this country like making Nikki Haley’s vice president,” said Ramaswamy after a town hall in Dubuque, Iowa, on Friday night. 

“If I’m not the nominee, and Donald Trump is, I have said that he would have my absolute support, but that is assuming that it is still the same individual Donald Trump that’s actually running on the platform and vision for this country,” said Ramaswamy.

It’s the first time he’s suggested conditions on his enthusiastic support for Trump.