DES MOINES —Iowa voters battled severe winter weather to attend a Fox News Town Hall with former president Donald Trump in Des Moines Wednesday night.
Hundreds of people flocked to the Iowa Events Center to engage with the Republican frontrunner. At the same time as Trump’s town hall, DeSantis and Haley duked it out at a CNN debate on Drake University’s campus.
Iowans posed questions about immigration, government shutdowns, abortion, and the economy to the Republican candidate.
At the event, Trump boasted about his double-digit poll lead ahead of his opponents. Trump also hinted that he decided who his vice president will be, but otherwise offered no information.
Five days before the Iowa caucus, Trump is already looking past the first-in-the-nation caucus to the presidential election.
“We’re going to win the Iowa caucuses and then we’re going to crush crooked Joe Biden next November,” Trump said in a video message played before his appearance, to which the crowd cheered and applauded.
As of Wednesday morning, polls place the former president over 50 percent in Iowa. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis trails with 17.2 percent and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley follows with just shy of 16 percent.
RELATED: Photos: Former President Donald Trump’s Commit to Caucus Rally in Newton
Trump has yet to attend a Republican debate, opting to sit out on debating his opponents only a few miles away in Des Moines.
Trump jeers at Chris Christie’s decision to drop out of the race
Earlier on Wednesday, former Gov. Chris Christie, R-New Jersey, announced he would be suspending his campaign.
Trump said that the larger focus should be on Christie’s comment about Haley not having what it takes to run for president.
“I happen to believe that Chris Christie is right,” Trump said. “This is one of the few things he’s been right about.”
Christie supporters from New Hampshire are expected to switch to favor Haley.
It is suspected that Christie’s supporters from New Hampshire will switch to Haley, inciting a battle between Trump and Haley over the state. Trump dismissed speculation about a potential shift in New Hampshire polls caused by Christie’s departure
Trump said he is not anticipating a shift in his current lead in the state.
“I understand New Hampshire very well. I won it twice and did very well with New Hampshire. I love the people, they love me, I think,” Trump said, referring to his primary wins over the state in 2016 and 2020.
Trump refurbishes plan for retribution
Throughout his campaign, Trump has spoken openly about his plan to retaliate against his political enemies upon his return to the White House. He went so far as to make vows to have them investigated by federal prosecutors.
But on Wednesday night, he shifted his stance and suggested retribution will not be a priority in his second term.
“We’re going to make this country so successful again,” Trump said. “I’m not going to have time for retribution. And remember this, our ultimate retribution is success.”
Takes credit for Roe v. Wade ruling
A member of the audience asked Trump to reassure voters about his pro-life stance.
In response, Trump patted himself on the back with the remark that after 54 years of others trying, he terminated Roe v. Wade, and no one else would have been able to accomplish that.
Trump compared himself to Ronald Reagan, saying he is for exceptions for abortion in the instance of rape or incest.
“I want to get something where people are happy,” Trump said. “This has been tearing our country apart for 50 years. Nobody has been able to do anything.”
Trump supporters don’t mind his rap sheet
Despite Trump’s 91 felony counts across four separate criminal indictments, supporters remain loyal to the former president.
“When he became elected, they fought and tried to tear him down and impeach him and take him out of office the whole time he was president,” Ronney Williams, 53, from Excelsior Springs, Missouri, said. “And the whole time he’s not been president, they have fought to destroy him, to keep him from being president again, because they can’t accept what the American people want.”
Williams said he has never seen the country more divided.
During his campaign trail, Trump had to appear at many pre-trial hearings and court appearances for the charges he has faced, including his role in interfering and attempting to overturn the 2020 election, making hush money payments to a porn star, and stockpiling classified documents and disrupting efforts made to retrieve them
Treating his legal troubles as a badge of honor, Trump has geared his campaign towards his impressive count of felony charges.
Banned from two state’s primary ballots, Trump seeks appeals
Colorado and Maine’s supreme courts removed former President Trump from their primary ballots in the last month after deeming him ineligible for the presidency due to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in the U.S. Capitol under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Trump appealed the state’s decision to ban him from the ballot to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The court agreed to hear the case in an expedited manner with oral arguments scheduled for Feb. 8.
Minnesota and Michigan courts struck down attempts to eliminate Trump from the ballot, but other cases, including one in Oregon, remain pending.
