DeSantis introduces himself to GOP voters in first week of campaign as war of words with Trump escalates

Des Moines, Iowa – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Saturday capped off his first week on the presidential campaign trail as the final speaker at Sen. Joni Ernst’s “Roast & Ride” event, which also hosted several other Republican presidential hopefuls.

There, he condensed his usual 45-minute stump speech into just 10 minutes. He made clear overtures to the first presidential primary state, wrapped into his claim of electability in 2024.

“There’s no substitute for victory, and we need to dispense with the culture of losing that has been set by the Republican Party in recent years,” DeSantis said. “Iowa shows that can be done. Florida shows it can be done.”
DeSantis barnstormed the state on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by stops in New Hampshire on Thursday and South Carolina on Friday. His campaign said Friday evening that a combined 7,000 people attended his 12 events across the three states this week.

Following his remarks at these events, the crowd often swarmed DeSantis as they looked to snag photos or get a campaign poster or copy of his book signed. They also asked him questions such as who he would pick as a running mate if he won the nomination, or his thoughts about the practice of “ballot harvesting” — in which third parties can collect and deliver mail-in ballots to polling places. DeSantis said he would employ the tactic in states that allow it.

But while the curiosity was there, it was unclear if DeSantis had the full support of the attendees at his events this week, as former President Donald Trump’s presence still looms large over the Republican party.

“DeSantis has put action to words, and actions speak louder than words in my book … I like what he’s done in Florida, [but] I want to hear from the horse’s mouth, so to speak,” said Ruby Fogwell, an undecided Republican voter who drove 40 miles to see DeSantis’ kickoff event in Clive, which is located just outside of Des Moines.

Mary Van Berkum, a Republican voter who saw DeSantis speak inside of a small barn in Pella, Iowa, also said she’s “keeping things open right now.”

“There’s a lot of choices there,” she added of the growing number of Republicans entering the race. “We just have to see what their policies are, what their views are.”

Chris Reisser, a Republican from Pottawattamie County that attended DeSantis’ event in Council Bluffs, said she wished DeSantis and Trump weren’t running against each other.

“We want Trump and DeSantis on the same ticket, we love them both,” she said at a Friday town hall for another candidate, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. She later added that she would want DeSantis as Trump’s vice president.

Bill Dunton, who saw DeSantis speak Saturday, said he is leaning towards voting for Trump, but that it’s still possible he could switch to DeSantis.

Asked who he thought would win the Iowa caucus, Dunton quickly replied, “Trump or DeSantis.”

John Goodall, a former Trump supporter, said Saturday he’s “80 percent sure” he’ll vote for DeSantis in 2024. On what could help make up the remaining 20 percent?

“We’ll see how he runs,” Goodall responded.

The foundation of the stump speech DeSantis has been deploying to early-state voters includes a conservative highlight reel of Florida’s latest legislative session, which included the passage of a six-week abortion ban and a law which allows Florida residents to carry a concealed weapon without a permit.

DeSantis, notably, did not include any mention of Florida’s new abortion ban during his stops in New Hampshire.

He touched on his ongoing standoff with Disney that began with his March 2022 signing of the controversial Parental Rights in Education bill, which was expanded last month to ban gender identity and sexual orientation from being taught to students in eighth grade and under.

DeSantis this week also discussed the migrant crisis, criticizing both President Biden and Trump for their responses to the ongoing problems at the southern border.

He dedicated a significant chunk of his stump speech to his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, criticizing states that shut down for longer periods of time, and claiming that Florida “chose freedom over” former Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former National Institutes for Allergy and Infectious Disease.

He also discussed his self-proclaimed war on “woke ideology,” ranging from pronouns being used in schools, to environmental, social and governance policies in corporations.

“We will never ever surrender to the woke mob,” DeSantis said this week. “We are going to leave woke ideology in the dustbin of history where it belongs.”

His wife, Casey DeSantis — known by many Republicans in Tallahassee to be a crucial political advisor to her husband — also spoke on each stop.

But the most striking change was DeSantis’ gloves-off approach to Trump, telling crowds that “leadership is not entertainment.”

He told reporters Tuesday that a recent Trump video in which he said former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had done a better job handling the pandemic than DeSantis was “bizarre.”

Asked in a New Hampshire radio interview Thursday morning about some of Trump’s attacks, DeSantis labeled them “juvenile,” and suggested that Trump’s behavior caused him to lose the 2020 election.

The latest spat between the two frontrunners in the GOP primary revolves around a frequent line in DeSantis’ speech, where he says that two presidential terms were needed to undo Mr. Biden’s policies, an indirect shot at Trump, who would be limited to just one more term if elected.

“One of our opponents, they were out there saying that it takes eight years,” Trump said at a Fox News town hall in Des Moines on Thursday. “No, it takes six months to fix it or less. If you have to rely on somebody that needs eight years to fix it, then he’s the wrong guy.”

“Anyone that tells you, ‘I’ll take care of it, it’ll be done in one day or six months,’ they’re selling you a bill of goods,” DeSantis said Thursday evening in Manchester, New Hampshire. “This is a problem that has accumulated over many, many decades. And it’s going to take a president that has discipline.”

Fundraisers for DeSantis have viewed the first official week on the trail positively, noting they’re hearing that reaction from donors as well.

“The way he’s gone onto the campaign trail and made his case forcefully in the last 72 hours, I’ve heard with the people I make calls to, they like it,” said Nick Ragone, a prominent GOP bundler in St. Louis. “For him to get out there and actually campaign.”

A GOP bundler from Wisconsin said donors see Trump’s relentless attacks on DeSantis as a positive sign which signals he has the clearest and best chance at challenging Trump.

“Nine out of ten calls [with donors] you hear about Trump. And the general reaction is, ‘Wow. DeSantis poked the bear. Trump is attacking Ron.’ He’s focused on Ron, not Tim Scott, not Nikki Haley. He’s the alternative.”

2024 hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy would end U.S. military support for Ukraine and “push peace treaty”

If Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy wins the presidency, he says he would end U.S. support for Ukraine and instead broker a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine.

“I will end the war by ceasing further U.S. support for Ukraine and negotiating a peace treaty with Russia that achieves a vital U.S. security objective: ceasing Russia’s growing military alliance with China,” Ramaswamy is expected to say in a policy speech Friday, according to an advance copy of his remarks obtained by CBS News.

Ramaswamy would “offer a Korean war-style armistice agreement” that would cede most of Ukraine’s Donbas region to Russia.” And as part of the settlement, he said he would suspend U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, prevent Kyiv from joining NATO and lift Western sanctions against the Kremlin. He would also withdraw all troops from Ukraine and close all bases in Eastern Europe.

However, there are no U.S. combat troops on the ground in Ukraine, as Rep. Mike Turner recently noted on “Face the Nation.” There are a few whose existence was exposed by alleged Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira, and they are tasked with U.S. embassy security in Kyiv.

“These concessions to Russia are significant,” Ramaswamy says.

In return, he says the U.S. would expect Russia to relinquish its military alliance with China, rejoin the nuclear non-proliferation START treaty, and withdraw all nuclear weapons and delivery capabilities from surrounding areas of Ukraine and annexed regions of the war-torn country.

Since the war began in February 2022, the U.S. has provided more than $75 billion in assistance to Kyiv.

“Under my peace plan, Ukraine will still emerge with its sovereignty intact and Russia permanently diminished as a foe. Ukraine’s best path to preserving its own security is to accept a U.S.-negotiated agreement backstopped by Russian commitments to the U.S.,” Ramaswamy is expected to say.

The entrepreneur said his strategy “is the mirror-image of President Nixon’s diplomatic maneuver that distanced China from Russia in 1972, except this time Putin is the new Mao.”

Ramaswamy says his policy differs from that of two of his Republican rivals, former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, neither of whom has formally stated a Ukraine policy. Trump claimed in a CNN Town Hall that he would end the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine within 24 hours.

Like Ramaswamy, DeSantis has indicated he does not favor continuing to fund the Ukraine war, which he referred to as a “territorial dispute,” a statement that was met by derision by many Republicans.

GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy bets big on Bitcoin in 2024 race

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is betting big on digital currency Bitcoin for campaign donations, and he’s also unveiling a new proposal to roll back tax restrictions on mining the currency in the U.S. 

“The thriving Bitcoin universe should actually better empower me to do what I want to do as the U.S. president, which is to stabilize the U.S. dollar as a unit of measurement and put the Federal Reserve back in its place with that as its single mandate,” Ramaswamy said in an exclusive interview with CBS News. (He would dispense with the Fed’s dual mandate of stabilizing currency and maximum employment to have it focus on the former.)

Ramaswamy plans to debut his new Bitcoin policy this Saturday at the annual Bitcoin 2023 conference in Miami. 

The business entrepreneur won’t be the first presidential candidate to allow digital currency for donations to his campaign. That distinction belongs to Sen. Rand Paul, who accepted Bitcoin donations in his 2016 White House campaign.

President Biden, Senator Tim Scott, former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Former President Donald Trump are not accepting cryptocurrency donations. However, Trump, who is leading in Republican primary polls, did issue non-fungible tokens — commonly known as NFTs — last fall and reportedly personally earned up to $1 million from selling the unique digital assets. 

“Right now, I’m more focused on policy. It also just gives people the choice to donate to the campaign in Bitcoin and signal that we’re not threatened by it,” he said. 

A core tenet of Ramaswamy’s proposal would be the freedom to mine Bitcoin in the U.S. 

Harvesting the digital currency is a costly, energy-draining process. The U.S. recently eclipsed China as the premier location for harvesting the digital coin after Beijing in 2021 pushed out companies mining the digital currency to cut energy consumption. 

The Biden administration recently proposed a 30% tax on electricity used by cryptocurrency mining operations in its budget for the fiscal year of 2024. 

“I think that it’s wrong and unfair and is not an appropriate use of federal power,” Ramaswamy said. But there is little chance that Congress would pass a new tax on electricity consumed by cryptocurrency mining, especially since the House is controlled by Republicans.

The entrepreneur said the freedom to mine would be the “base principle that it is unfair and counterproductive to target Bitcoin miners as different from any other consumer of energy, period.” 

“We’ll put that into the rules and preserve freedom to mine by rescinding and committing against any special taxes for the utilization of energy for purposes of mining,” he said. 

Ramaswamy’s proposal would also codify that Bitcoin and similar coins would not be treated as a security, which he says would allow it to be “a parallel currency.” Bitcoin has skyrocketed in value within the last decade, but remains highly volatile due to uncertainty in the cryptocurrency markets and government regulation. 

Nonetheless, he argues cryptocurrency can provide an alternative to Americans wary about the strength of the U.S. dollar. 

“The insecurities that the defenders of fiat money have with respect to the rise of Bitcoin is similar to the insecurities that I see amongst public schools and the teachers unions and the administrators of public schools with respect to school choice,” Ramaswamy said. “I will be the opposite of what public schools are to school choice.” 

The state of cryptocurrency in the U.S.

Washington is pushing for greater regulation and oversight of cryptocurrencies after the collapse of FTX, a cryptocurrency hedge fund and crypto-exchange site, in November 2022. Shortly after, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested and charged with securities fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations. 

The cryptocurrency company lost about $9 billion of customer funds. A string of other industry players have declared bankruptcy over the last year, including BlockFi, Celsius Network, Genesis Global Capital, Three Arrows Capital and Voyager Digital.

Gary Gensler, the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, testified before Congress in April about the state of the cryptocurrency market and clashed with Republicans over a proposed requirement that companies disclose information related to climate-related risks and greenhouse gas emissions. 

The cryptocurrency market has fluctuated wildly in recent years, but is currently a $1.7 trillion industry. Bitcoin has the largest share of that market, with about $518 billion in securities. 

New Hampshire voters react after Trump’s town hall

Former President Donald Trump’s return to New Hampshire to participate in a CNN town hall created buzz for staunch supporters relishing in his dominance of the polls.  

“I thought last night was a tremendous clear messaging from President Trump,” said Republican real estate investor Steve Richard. “I think that audience reflected that over and over again.”

Trump took questions from Republican and independent Granite State voters and repeated fraudulent claims that the 2020 election was stolen and said he would have the Russian war in Ukraine “settled within one day.”  

New Hampshire voters will be the first in the nation to cast primary ballots for a Republican presidential nominee early next year, yet some Trump voters appear not to be swayed by several legal issues facing the former president. 

Earlier this week, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation against writer E. Jean Carroll. She was awarded $5 million in damages after a jury sided with her unanimously, but Trump called Carroll’s story “fake” and “made up” on Wednesday night. 

Former President Donald Trump participates in a CNN Republican Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, May 10, 2023.WILL LANZONI/CNN

June Dickerson, an independent who voted for Trump, says she believes him. 

“He’s a very honorable man,” she said. “He always said what was on his mind. He was always honest and forthright and I don’t believe lies.”

Louise Hoyt, a Republican voter, said she plans to vote for Trump again. 

“They are trying to stop him, that’s what they are trying to do,” she said. 

However, Trump’s attacks on Carroll did not sit well with independent voter Melanie Mortan.

“I think it’s amazing that he got that conviction and yet still continues to shame and put her down. It’s like he feels like he is above the law. It’s despicable,” Morton said. 

E. Jean Carroll, center, walks out of Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, May 9, 2023, in New York. A jury has found Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing the advice columnist in 1996, awarding her $5 million.SETH WENIG / AP

The former president remains the clear front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, but for Kristin Burke, an independent who voted for Trump previously, she said it would be a struggle to vote for him again. 

“I just think there was too much havoc while he was in the presidency and it was just too much for the country,” Burke said. 

The former president scored over 50 endorsements in the Granite State, but one top Republican is skeptical of Trump’s broad support. Jason Osborne, the New Hampshire House Majority Leader who recently endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 election, told CBS News that he is beginning to see increasing fatigue in the support for Trump. 

“I think it’s a slow bleed. It’s not it’s not going to be all at once. And this one town hall isn’t going to make a big difference,” he said. “But over the course of the next several months, as we move through this campaign, as Gov. Ron DeSantis gets into the race and starts picking up support, you’re going to start to see more and more of that support dwindle by the time we get to the primary.”

Trump CNN town hall highlights include comments on E. Jean Carroll verdict, Jan. 6 and more

Former President Donald Trump disparaged writer E. Jean Carroll in a CNN town hall Wednesday night, one day after a federal jury in New York found him liable for battery and defamation in a civil trial stemming from allegations he raped Carroll in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.

The jury did not find Trump liable for rape but did find that he sexually abused Carroll and then defamed her when she came forward several years ago. Carroll was awarded $5 million total in damages. After the verdict, Trump claimed that he didn’t know Carroll and that he was “silenced” from speaking publicly about the case, despite the fact that the court gave him multiple opportunities to speak at the trial and he declined to do so.

On Wednesday night in Manchester, New Hampshire, Trump decried the jury’s verdict in the civil case and called Carroll a “whack job,” using language similar to that which led to his defamation verdict in the first place. Trump called Carroll’s story “fake” and “made up,” even though a jury unanimously and swiftly agreed on the verdict. Trump was asked what he tells voters who say the verdict disqualifies him from being president.

“Well, there aren’t too many of them because my poll numbers just came out — they went up,” Trump said to the delight of some in the audience. The audience was composed of Republicans and undecided voters, according to CNN. Multiple voters who asked Trump questions voted for him in 2020.

It’s unclear what poll Trump is referring to since no major polls were both taken and released in the barely 24 hours since the verdict.

Republicans’ reactions to Trump sexual abuse verdict range from defending him to disgust
Trump called the trial a “rigged deal.” He also mocked Carroll’s allegation that he sexually assaulted her in the department store, and swore on his children’s lives that he did not assault Carroll.

“She wasn’t raped, OK? … And I didn’t do anything else either, OK, because I don’t know who the hell she is,” Trump said to laughter from the audience.

CBS News has reached out to Carroll’s lawyer for comment. After the verdict was read Tuesday, Carroll said in a statement, “I filed this lawsuit against Donald Trump to clear my name and to get my life back. Today, the world finally knows the truth. This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed.”

Kimberly Rice, a Republican and former speaker pro tempore of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, told CBS News’ Robert Costa earlier Wednesday that she hopes everyone takes the verdict seriously.

“I’ve been in a position before where a boss has chased me around. And, you know, women should be believed,” she said. “The jurors saw the evidence … Just because you’re a celebrity does not give you a right to sexually abuse anyone.”

Rice, however, doubted the impact the verdict may have on Trump’s stronghold of the Republican base.

“His followers are very devoted, you know, and that’s up to them. I don’t speak for, you know, everyone or, or pretend to. I just know how I feel in my heart,” she said.

On another topic, Trump said in Wednesday night’s town hall that he’s “inclined” to pardon his supporters convicted of various charges for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol and efforts to alter the results of the election.

“I am inclined to pardon many of them,” Trump said. “I can’t say for every single one because a couple of them, probably, they got out of control.”

Trump said it would be a “large portion” of convicted rioters, who he called “great people,” that he would pardon, adding that alleged rioters sitting in jail are “living in hell.”

Asked whether he has any regrets about that day, Trump emphasized how large the crowd was that day, and said his supporters showed up in D.C. “with love in their heart.”

“It felt as if a mob was being organized”: Jan. 6 committee lays out Trump’s role related to mobilizing extremists
The former president also called Ashli Babbitt, the Trump supporter who was shot and killed by Capitol Police and has since been martyred by the far-right, a “patriot” and called the police officer who fatally shot her “a thug.”

Trump was also asked if his vice president, Mike Pence, deserved an apology for the actions of the Jan. 6 rioters, who threatened to hang Mike Pence as the assault on the Capitol was unfolding. Trump declined to offer one “because he did something wrong.”

“He should have put the votes back to the state legislatures and I think we would have had a different outcome,” Trump said.

On several occasions, Trump claimed without evidence that the 2020 election was “rigged” in favor of President Joe Biden. One voter asked Trump if he would “suspend polarizing talk of election fraud” during his run for president.

Trump equivocated. “Yeah — unless I see election fraud,” he responded.

Kaitlin Collins, the CNN anchor moderating the town hall, pointed out that the former president and his team lost more than 60 lawsuits alleging that the 2020 election was fraudulent.

Debt ceiling: Tells GOP members of Congress, “if they don’t give you massive cuts, you’re going to have to do a default.”
The impasse over the debt ceiling continues, and Trump proposed that Republicans should not give in on their insistence on spending cuts in exchange for raising or suspending the debt limit.

“I say to the Republicans out there — congressmen, senators — if they don’t give you massive cuts, you’re going to have to do a default. And I don’t believe they’re going to do a default because I think the Democrats will absolutely cave because you don’t want to have that happen. But it’s better than what we’re doing right now because we’re spending money like drunken sailors.”

Asked by Collins if he thought the U.S. “should default if the White House does not agree to the spending cuts Republicans are demanding,” Trump replied, “Well, you might as well do it now because you’ll do it later.”

Russia-Ukraine war
Trump also equivocated on whether he wants Ukraine to win, as Russia continues its unilateral assault on the sovereign nation.

Asked if he wants Ukraine to win the war, Trump said, “I don’t think in terms of winning and losing.” Pressed again if he wants Ukraine or Russia to win the war, Trump said, “I want everybody to stop dying. They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians.”

The former president complained that the U.S. has provided more funding to Ukraine for the war than European nations have, and he would not say whether if elected, he would continue to give Ukraine weapons and funding.

“Let me just put it a nicer way,” he said. “If I’m president, I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours.” Asked to elaborate, Trump responded, “First, I’ll meet with Putin. I’ll meet with Zelenskyy. They both have weaknesses and they both have strengths. And within 24 hours that war will be settled. It will be over.”

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin says no to 2024 presidential bid

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin silenced speculation about a potential 2024 run for the presidency Monday, responding with a simple “no” when he was asked about returning to the campaign trail later this year.

The governor was participating in a talk at the Milken Institute with Wall Street Journal editor-at-large Gerard Baker, who asked Youngkin if he planned to dust off his signature fleece vest and launch a presidential campaign.

“I’m going to be working in Virginia this year,” Youngkin replied, citing the Virginia state House and Senate races coming this November. Republicans currently control the House of Delegates and would like to flip the state Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.

“I haven’t written a book; I’m not in Iowa,” the governor said. “I’m spending time representing Virginia this year.”

This is the first time that Youngkin — who arrived at the California event from a trip to Taiwan, Japan and South Korea — has given a definitive answer to questions about whether he had any plans to run for president.

Who’s running for president in 2024? Meet the candidates – and likely candidates – vying for your vote
Youngkin declined to rule out a run in July last year in an interview with CBS News chief election & campaign correspondent Robert Costa on “Face the Nation.” At the time, he acknowledged being “hugely humbled by this discussion” that he might run for president and didn’t deny that some Republican donors had approached him.

He chalked up the attention to “the fact that I won in a state that was blue, and we turned it red,” adding, I ran on a platform that we’re delivering.”

But at the time, he told Costa he felt his job was to be “a great governor of Virginia.”

Early DeSantis supporters exhibit Trump fatigue: “I wish he would kind of enjoy retirement

Republican voters backing a 2024 run by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are sick of former President Donald Trump, and they say the news about his indictment only adds to their fatigue. 

In conversations this week with people who voted for Trump in past elections and attended DeSantis’ speeches in two key battleground states, Georgia and Pennsylvania, Republicans worried that Trump could lose the general election if nominated again. They cited his temperament, the “drama” that surrounds him, his recent attacks on DeSantis and baggage from the 2020 election they fear would weigh him down in a general election.

“I love what he did as a president. I’m not real happy with how he’s behaved after. He’s very polarizing for our country. His time is over. And I wish he would kind of enjoy retirement,” said Ashley Seiler, a resident of Marietta, Ga., who went to see DeSantis speak in metro Atlanta on Thursday. 

Wes Goodroe, also a Marietta resident who twice voted for Trump but leans toward DeSantis, said Trump wanted to play up a potential indictment “because it’ll probably give him a big boost in the polls.”

“I think it would probably help Trump a little bit,” Goodroe said of a Trump indictment, hours before news broke that the former president had been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury Thursday. “But that’s just all sideline news. Stick to the issues and concentrate.”

Trump’s campaign said Saturday it raised over $4 million since the indictment and shared an internal poll conducted Friday through Saturday that showed an increase in Trump’s lead over his 2024 primary opponents. 

DeSantis’ remarks in Harrisburg, Pa., and in Long Island on Saturday were his first public appearances since Trump was indicted. Most attendees said they were angered by the indictment and didn’t agree with it, and applauded when DeSantis called it “flimsy” and criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

After Trump initially claimed he would be arrested earlier this month, DeSantis criticized Bragg but took a backhanded shot at Trump with the remark, “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair.”

In March, Trump began ramping up his attacks on DeSantis, whom he sees as “probably” his biggest 2024 primary challenger. He posts often about DeSantis on his “Truth Social” social media platform, attacking his past support for reforming Social Security and Medicare, alleging he drank alcohol with underage students when he was a teacher in Georgia and mocking DeSantis for asking for his endorsement for his 2018 gubernatorial run. 

“If Donald Trump is not the nominee, I will vote third party. I will not vote — Ron DeSantis — I wouldn’t vote for him for anything,” said Debbie Dooley, an ambassador for the “Veterans for Trump” group that gathered in the parking lot outside DeSantis’ event in Georgia.

Dooley was once a fan of DeSantis, and wrote his name in for governor in the 2022 primary and general election. But on Thursday in Georgia, she was wearing a t-shirt that said “ULTRA MAGA” and brought a makeshift poster featuring news clips of Trump’s attacks towards DeSantis. “He is phony, and he is fake,” Dooley said of DeSantis. 

DeSantis isn’t a candidate yet, but he’s been visiting or plans to visit early presidential primary states such as Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina. He’s expected to officially launch a campaign after the legislative session in Florida ends in early May. 

Voters leaning towards DeSantis said they were put off by Trump’s early attacks. 

Melvin McDowell, a retired attorney and former member of the Republican State Committee in Pennsylvania who attended DeSantis’ event in Harrisburg, said he was “really displeased” by Trump’s mockery of DeSantis. 

“His style at this point is a liability, electorally speaking,” McDowell said. “I think President Trump, for all he has accomplished in the past, it’s time for him to make way for a stronger candidate.”

Seiler called it “pretty tacky,” and said she admires DeSantis’ restraint. “He has not thrown any low punches, and that’s what I do like about him as well,” she said. 

Goodroe called DeSantis “less controversial” than Trump. The name-calling has “kind of been a problem for me,” he said about Trump’s attacks. 

“He’s notorious for it,” Goodroe said of Trump. “During the last primary, everybody had a nickname. And it just doesn’t have to work that way.”

Most of the voters who spoke with CBS News were going to see DeSantis speak for the first time. Many liked his response to COVID in Florida, his transport of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard from Texas and his “culture war” battles to incorporate more parental involvement in education. But multiple attendees also said they don’t know much about him personally yet. 

“I’ve been impressed with what he’s done in Florida. He seems to be a reliable candidate,” said Roger Hitchcock, a Georgia Republican who says he’s open to other choices in the 2024 races, but that his vote for DeSantis “would be his to lose at this point.”

Christian Johnson, a 22-year-old congressional staffer in Pennsylvania, said he loved DeSantis’s speech on Saturday and chose DeSantis in the conference’s straw poll because he thinks DeSantis has the “best chance of bringing a hopeful message to the nation.” 

“I think the magic of 2016 has passed and I don’t think it can be replicated. I think it’s time we have a new and whole image for this country,” Johnson said. 

Feds could exhaust “extraordinary measures” to avoid debt limit by July, report finds

By Olivia Rinaldi

The U.S. Treasury Department could drain emergency resources to cover the federal government’s financial obligations by the beginning of July, potentially setting off an unprecedented fiscal crisis if lawmakers fail to lift the nation’s debt limit, according to a new report from Wells Fargo. 

The note, published Thursday by Wells Fargo Economics, says their projections show that “Date X” — the day when the U.S. would be unable to honor its financial commitments — likely falls between early July and the beginning of September.

“We tentatively think the Treasury can make it through to the end of July, although that is still far from certain this far out,” Mike Pugliese, co-author of the report and an economist at Wells Fargo, told CBS News. “August is usually a month in which the federal government runs a large budget deficit, and our current forecast is for a $300 billion deficit in just that month alone.”

Hitting Date X without raising the debt ceiling could lead the U.S. to default on its debt for the first time in its history, triggering a wave of potentially serious economic consequences. America’s credit rating would likely be downgraded, causing the stock and bond market to plummet. 

Millions of Americans also could see their retirement savings shrink, while the broader economy — already teetering on the edge of recession — could sharply deteriorate, experts say. Economists warn that a first-ever default would also weaken the dollar and send ripples across the global financial system. 

Wells Fargo said the exact timing of Date X will become clearer after the April 18 deadline for filing federal income taxes, which will affect government revenue. 

The debt limit, which is set by Congress, represents the maximum amount the federal government is allowed to borrow to pay its obligations. Since 1960, Congress has acted 78 times to raise, temporarily extend or revise the definition of the debt limit, according to the Treasury. The debt limit was changed 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic administrations. The last time the debt ceiling was lifted was in December 2021, when Democrats controlled both the House and Senate. 

In a letter to congressional leadership on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the agency will begin taking “extraordinary measures” to temporarily keep the government under the borrowing limit of $31.4 trillion after hitting the debt ceiling. 

Those measures could inflict pain on retired federal workers as Yellen will have to decide what government functions and payments receive priority funding.

Some of the emergency actions include suspending new and existing investments in funds that provide benefits to retired and disabled federal employees and health benefits for retired U.S. Postal Service workers. 

Yellen predicted that Date X could arrive as soon as June. In her letter, she wrote the “debt issuance suspension period” will begin today and last until June 5. 

The Bipartisan Policy Center warned last week that Date X could arrive earlier than June due to persistently high inflation, a push by the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark interest rate and the suspension of President Biden’s student loan plan. 

The decision to raise or suspend the debt ceiling rests in the hands of Congress. Several House Republicans have taken a hardline approach, insisting they will not increase the debt ceiling until there is an agreement to cut government spending. The White House has rejected any calls to reduce spending as part of a deal. 

“Congress must address the debt limit without conditions. Our posture on this hasn’t changed. There will be no negotiations of the debt ceiling,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Dalton said on Thursday. “Again, Congress must address this without conditions, as they did three times under Donald Trump with bipartisan support.” 

Wells Fargo warns that the “probability of a protracted and potentially serious debt ceiling showdown is elevated compared to similar episodes in the past.” 

The August 2011 debt ceiling showdown was perhaps the closest brush the United States had with Date X, the report says. In the aftermath, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+. Stocks plunged in just a few weeks as nervous investors fretted over the congressional deadlock, and consumer confidence plummeted. 

“In a full-blown, complete default scenario that dragged on for an extended period of time, I think the global economy likely would suffer materially,” Pugliese said. 

Cardiac arrest in youth athletes is rare, but does happen. Here’s how to be prepared.

When Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed during a football game Monday night after suffering a cardiac arrest, Heather O’Donnell said it confirmed her greatest fear. 

“It was like watching my worst nightmare,” said Heather O’Donnell, whose 10-year-old son, Jack, plays hockey in Virginia. “He could get hit in the wrong place. Something could happen. No sport is 100% safe.” 

About 60 million kids in the U.S. participate in organized sports, and cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death among young athletes. 

Dr. Korin Hudson, a MedStar Health emergency physician, said what happened to Hamlin can “absolutely” happen to a child. 

“It can happen at any time,” said Hudson, who works with teams like the Washington Wizards and Capitals. “[It’s] very rare, but we do know it may happen as frequently as once every five days.”

“Now, there are a lot of athletes in high school and collegiate sports in this country,” Hudson said. “But once every five days is probably more often than we think about.”

Hudson said the best way to be prepared for the potential is to have the training and equipment necessary to respond. 

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/QQ-A6wvWwMw?autoplay=0&rel=1How to use an AED by CBS Evening News on YouTube

That equipment includes an AED — an automated external defibrillator. If used within the first minute, chances of survival are close to 90%.  

Hudson said parents should know where the closest AED is, always have a way to dial 911, ask coaches if they know CPR, and make sure their school or club has an emergency action plan. 

“You can learn how to use an AED in less than two minutes,” Hudson said. “Anybody can do these skills.” 

The American Heart Association offers online courses teaching CPR and how to use an AED, Hudson said.