Ron DeSantis

Promise made, promise kept.

My approach to firearms is I'm going to stand rock solid behind our Second Amendment rights, our constitutional freedoms, and I will focus the attention of law enforcement on individuals, convicted felons, people who are mentally ill or…

CNN's back-to-back presidential Republican town halls begin one hour from now live in Des Moines. Ron DeSantis is up first, followed by Nikki Haley.

I don't think Donald Trump ultimately can win an election.

Well, I mean, first of all, he won't debate. I mean, like how am I -- I mean, like he's not willing to get on a stage, he's not willing to answer questions.

I don't think Donald Trump ultimately can win an election. I know Fox News is going to say, 'Oh, he is winning this poll, he is winning this poll.' These polls are garbage.

I've articulated all the differences time and time again on the campaign trail. What the media wants is, they want Republican candidates to just kind of smear him personally and kind of do that. That's just not how I roll.

As your nominee, I will make sure that we win up and down the ballot all across the country, just like we did in Florida.

This is all about who turns out. And if we turn out, this is going to be a really, really special night for us.

What you're able to do in Iowa is going to reverberate all across this country.

I would represent bigger vitality in the executive that we sorely need. I'm also somebody that would be eligible to serve two terms. I mean, Donald Trump would be a lame duck on day one. That's a huge liability in terms of actually being…

I've articulated all the differences, time and time again on the campaign trail.

Some of the stuff they are doing now, like this stuff with like the Maine, it was ridiculous.

I just think this shows this is not a candidate that's ready for primetime.

I notice that Nikki Haley has had some problems with some basic American history. She was asked a very simple question and responded with just really incomprehensible word salad.

Many view these as weaponization of the DOJ and using the system to go against political adversaries.

I would say if I could have one thing changed, I wish Trump hadn't been indicted on any of this stuff.

Haley? No one would even try to say she's a conservative. We know she's not.

Look, it's unfair. They're abusing power 100 percent.

We've drained the swamp in here.

I want people to be able to have their suffering relieved.

I've called on Christian to step down as the RPOF chairman. My understanding is he's the one that's under the criminal cloud.

If you give them an ability -- the opposition an ability to try to make it about something else with some of those comments, I just think that it's a tactical mistake.

I don't know that you have any real standing with that hanging over you.

This is Grandview University in Des Moines, Iowa, side of CNN town hall with Ron DeSantis.