Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) went after former President Trump over his stance on abortion restrictions, saying Tuesday that Trump dodged questions about whether he would sign a bill similar to the six-week abortion ban signed by DeSantis.
Trump said this week in an interview with The Messenger that “a lot of people don’t even know if he knew what he was doing,” when asked about DeSantis’s decision to sign the six week ban, arguing that “many people within the pro-life movement feel that that was too harsh.”
DeSantis fired back during a bill signing in Tallahassee on Tuesday, criticizing Trump for not saying whether he would sign a similar bill.
“I think that as a Florida resident, you know, he didn’t give an answer about ‘would you have signed the heartbeat bill that Florida did.’” DeSantis said. “He won’t answer whether he would sign it or not.”
The bill in Florida, which DeSantis signed last month, has infuriated abortion rights advocates. But the governor defended his decision to endorse the law.
“It had all the exceptions that people talk about,” DeSantis said. “The Legislature put it in. I signed the bill. I was proud to do it.”
DeSantis’s offensive against Trump on abortion comes after the former president took a victory lap on the issue during his CNN town hall last week, taking credit for the fall of Roe v. Wade last year after confirming Supreme Court justices that solidified its conservative majority.
But when pressed on whether he would sign a national abortion ban, as many anti-abortion groups are demanding, Trump would not commit.
The comments from DeSantis is just the latest spat in a growing feud between the two men who appear likely to clash in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.
Trump this week criticized Fox News for its positive coverage of DeSantis.
“FoxNews has become the DeSanctimonious Network, but it will never work because he doesn’t have the goods,” he said Monday. “Without my Endorsement, he was a dead man walking. Even with Fox, he’s already pretty close to that again!”