ALTOONA, Iowa — ALTOONA, Iowa (AP) — Nikki Haley excoriated Republican presidential rival Ron DeSantis Sunday in Iowa for campaigning in the state with Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, the only House Republican to vote against a Republican resolution last week condemning anti-Semitism on college campuses.
“You can't be pro-Israel and bring into this state the most anti-Israel Republican who voted against fighting anti-Semitism on college campuses,” Haley said. “And that's who he brought to your state.”
At the end of a campaign event at a bar and grill in suburban Des Moines, Haley's criticism of DeSantis over campaigning with Massie on Saturday marks increased pressure on the two to emerge from Iowa as the stronger alternative to former President Donald Trump.
Trump is the heavy favorite to win the first caucuses in Iowa on January 15. Last week, Trump emphasized at a campaign event in eastern Iowa that a blowout in Iowa would help him rally the party early in the 2024 vote. “The margin of victory is very important, it's just very important,” Trump told his audience in Coralville.
DeSantis and Haley have increasingly clashed publicly, as they have during debates, while ads from supportive groups have sought to halt the other's movement in Iowa with less than a month until the caucuses.
DeSantis was campaigning in Iowa with Massie when the two headlined a town hall-style event focused on gun rights policies in Johnston, Iowa, a northern suburb of Des Moines.
Massie has previously criticized anti-Semitism-related legislation as restricting freedom of expression, and voted against related Republican Party-sponsored resolutions since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Support for Israel is a top priority for most Republicans, especially evangelical Christians who form an influential bloc in the Iowa Republican Party and many of whom believe that Jews are God's chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland.
DeSantis has called for U.S. support for Israel, touting his efforts from Florida to deliver medical supplies to the country and evacuate hundreds of Americans from Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack led by Hamas. DeSantis has also called for the destruction of Hamas.
DeSantis' campaign rejected criticism of the Massie campaign.
“Ron DeSantis has been the clearest, most consistently pro-Israel candidate in the race,” said Bryan Griffin, DeSantis' campaign press secretary. “He has unequivocally supported Israel in eradicating Hamas.”
Haley has called on Israel to “finish them off,” referring to Hamas, the group responsible for the October 7 attack.
