Miscarriages, abortion and Thanksgiving – DeSantis, Haley and Ramaswamy talk family and faith at Iowa roundtableThree Republican presidential candidates shared the stage in Iowa Friday night, as a key block of Iowa voters heard candidates weigh in on abortion, foreign policy and their faith, with less than two months to go before the caucus.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy spoke at a roundtable Friday moderated by influential evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats. And while the three have had combative exchanges on the debate stage, Friday's roundtable was polite and featured no crosstalk or insults.
Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner in Iowa and nationwide for the GOP nomination, was invited but did not attend. ............
..................Afterward, Ramaswamy told CBS News that while it was "difficult" to share his wife's experience on the campaign trail, he thought "it's important that everybody in this country know who we are and what we stand for before they make that choice."
DeSantis also shared for the first time publicly, that his wife Casey DeSantis, too, suffered a miscarriage.
"We wanted to have a family, and it didn't happen at first," DeSantis said. "We just kept praying. We knew that there would be a path that God would lead us on, and lo and behold, in short time, we did it, and we had our first baby girl."...........
..............At Friday's roundtable, Haley was asked to clarify her stance on abortion after Vander Plaats claimed many wondered if her recent remarks calling for a consensus was "too pro-choice."
"I am unapologetically pro-life," Haley responded, touting her record as governor of South Carolina. Haley went on to explain that a federal abortion bill is not feasible because it would not have enough congressional support, and instead, the focus should be on saving as many lives as possible.
"If you're going to pass a federal law, you have to have a majority of the House, you have to have 60 Senate votes, you have to have the signature of a president. And we haven't had 60 Republicans in over 100 years," she said..............
..............Asked by Vander Plaats why he didn't just "wait his turn" until after Trump was unable to run, DeSantis said Trump is a candidate who's "high risk with low reward."
He painted the former president as someone who cannot win in 2024 and didn't keep his promises in 2016.
"I think as a lame duck with poor personnel and the distractions, it's going to be hard for him to get this done," said DeSantis, who has consistently trailed the former president by double digits in polling.
"My candidacy is lower risk – because we'll run Biden ragged around this country – but high reward. Because you get a two-term conservative president who's going to stand for your values and deliver for you for eight full years," he added. .......................
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/miscarriages-abortion-thanksgiving-desantis-haley-ramaswamy-iowa-roundtable/?intcid=CNR-02-0623
