Former Virginia Attorney General and Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli has spent much of his time campaigning for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis here in Iowa. Cuccinelli returned to Iowa for this final stretch and is delivering a powerful message.
“I worked for President Trump and I got to work with him very closely for a long period of time when there was a lot of intense stuff going on — burning cities, COVID, the election, obviously immigration — and we did some good things,” Cuccinelli said.
He is asking Iowans to consider the casts surrounding the two candidates. Cuccinelli said there is an “astonishing” number of Florida officials who have come to Iowa on their own time and their own dime to help DeSantis. Meanwhile, Trump’s original team is almost entirely gone.
“Who do you see from the original Trump campaign,” he asked. “How many cabinet members do you see? What, didn’t he have 44? I can’t name one that has been campaigning for him. The people campaigning for him are all the women who are modeling for vice president. It isn’t a belief, it’s pure opportunism. The people here with DeSantis have seen and lived the benefits of his leadership and they understand it. I mean, literally, from the original Trump campaign you can’t identify a single person that is in a meaningful position with the current Trump campaign. I don’t even think I could name one from 2020. And that really tells you something in my view.”
It is also about the issues for Cuccinelli. Trump’s actual record at the border isn’t what many conservatives believe it is, he said.
“In some ways, we were tough on the border as far as illegals go, but (Trump) declined to run deportation operations so Barack Obama ended up deporting more people per year than Donald Trump,” he said. “And that was a continual frustration. I was there when (Trump) was canceling operations. It was very frustrating.
“On the legal immigration front, (Trump) was more than happy to let more folks in. I remember one conversation where he was really concerned about his fellow hotel owners being able to hire folks. And I said, ‘Well, just raise wages and pay Americans more’ and he scoffed. So he talks a good game out there on the stump, but unfortunately, a good chunk of my experience was him backing away from his own commitments to put Americans first and things like troops on the border, which I was begging him to do.”
As Cuccinelli tells it, Trump was hesitant to put troops at the border because he expected pushback. While he eventually sent troops to the border, Cuccinelli said he did it in the same way Biden has — the troops were there to process people.
“It was for show,” he said. “They never stopped a single person coming in whereas Ron DeSantis has committed to using the military to close the border, which is a perfectly legitimate thing to do.”
DeSantis is also committed to going on offense against the cartels, something Trump didn’t do.
Cuccinelli has long been a supporter of the idea of a balanced budget. And while Trump promised to balance the budget, he actually provided the country with more debt than any President in history. Trump added $7 trillion to the national debt in four years while DeSantis cut Florida’s debt by 25 percent while at the same time cutting taxes.
“I’m an ideological conservative,” Cuccinelli said. “I believe conservative principles applied in the real world help more people in their real lives than any other set of ideas. And Ron DeSantis is unflinchingly the most successful chief executive of our lifetime as President or Governor. He has done more to change people’s lives for the better, applying conservative principles than anybody in my lifetime and he’s done it often under circumstances that were extremely, I’ll just say, politically unfavorable.”
When DeSantis pivoted on COVID policies 4-6 weeks after following guidance coming from Washington, Cuccinelli said “hellfire” rained down on him.
“Nothing he did polled well and everything he did was right,” Cuccinelli said. “It isn’t so much that he was right — that helps — but I think he got it right because over those six weeks he was analyzing data for himself and educating himself to be able to make his own decisions. So I’m not surprised he got it right.”
Cuccinelli said it is also critically important that the President be someone who believes the Washington establishment is a big part of the problem. And DeSantis knows that.
“To watch a guy go against media, the experts, Trump, so-called conventional wisdom and chart his own path in a thoughtful, intelligent way that prioritizes the people he is responsible for and do it in a way that doesn’t order Floridians how to behave but clears the way for them to make their own decisions and do that in the face of the opposition that he confronted is a big, big deal,” Cuccinelli said. “He brings together this incredible package on its own. For me, when combined with my disappointment from working with President Trump, (DeSantis) is really the only alternative here as a practical matter. Haley has no path to be nominated. That’s why I’m enthusiastic about the prospect of a DeSantis presidency.”
Trump has refused to take a position on eminent domain in Iowa for carbon capture pipelines. He has criticized pro-life policies. There are other policies Trump simply hasn’t sided with conservatives on yet the same conservatives are willing to overlook these principles.
“There is a certain disappointment on my part in my fellow Americans who are willing to cast aside the things they supposedly believe and literally act like they never believed it,” Cuccinelli said. “Just to legitimize support for Trump, which to me is disturbing enough that it adds to my concerns about his candidacy. I mean, if that’s what it takes to support somebody, then what do you expect him to do if he wins? And that’s part of my concern and part of why I support DeSantis.
“I know what DeSantis will do if he wins. Nobody knows what Trump will do if he wins. Nobody knows. He could do anything on any given day. He has no election in front of him if he wins. He will not be accountable to people. He likes to make the people in the room happy.”
And often, Cuccinelli said, the people in the room were Democrat leaders such as Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.
“It’s one of the problems with not having a principled foundation and he doesn’t,” Cuccinelli said. “And for a conservative like myself, that is a major concern. Most Republican voters in Iowa are conservative. I hope that will play out strongly on Monday.”
Iowans should expect DeSantis to follow through on his promises because that is exactly what he has done in Florida.
“The record just gives you confidence in what the Governor says he will do as President,” Cuccinelli said. “He has kept every promise that he made when he was running for Governor. Trump didn’t. (Trump said he will) balance the budget, he added more to it than anybody else. (Trump said he will) prosecute Hillary, (then Trump said) no I never meant that, she’s a nice lady. Literally within days. And that contrast is enormous. The record is important.”
Cuccinelli also highlighted Trump’s support for the transgender movement that dates back years. Trump allowed men to compete in his pageants and said anyone can use whatever bathroom they’d like to use at Trump Tower.
“There’s no telling what this guy will do,” Cuccinelli said. “And with DeSantis, you could predict it within a good margin of error on virtually every issue. And he’ll land where Republicans and conservatives will want a President to land.”
Ultimately, Iowans have that chance. A chance to pick someone like DeSantis who has achieved as much as he has when it comes to the conservative agenda on a state level.
“He is prepared, willing and able to bring it to the presidential level,” Cuccinelli said. “To think of what that would do for America. If he can do for America what he’s done for Florida, our lives, our children’s lives and our grandchildren’s lives are going to be made spectacularly better.”
