Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., told Newsmax on Wednesday that the results of Iowa caucuses Monday showed the resiliency of Donald Trump supporters, who braved sub-zero temperatures and bitter winds to turn out and deliver a decisive victory for the former president.
"There is a relentlessness and persistence in the Trump campaign that I think really emerges out of the candidate himself in Iowa," Gaetz told "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE." "This victory was so huge and really it was a testament to the resiliency of the Trump voter because you had the worst conditions possible, historically challenging weather and ice, and these folks came out and voted overwhelmingly for the president."
Trump won Iowa with 51% of the vote and a record margin of victory of 28.8 percentage points for a nonincumbent candidate. Nikki Haley, who finished third in Iowa at 19.1% — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was second at 21.2% — is expected to give Trump a big challenge in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary on Tuesday.
Haley is a close second behind Trump in the FiveThirtyEight average of polling at 33.1% to Trump’s 45.6%, but a poll released Wednesday by Suffolk University showed Trump at 50% and Haley at 34% in New Hampshire. Many thought Haley would get a big bump after former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie suspended his campaign.
"Nikki Haley is not an acceptable option to be the Republican nominee," Gaetz said. "We do not need a Republican nominee who wants to raise the gas tax, invite more illegal immigration, and start three wars before lunchtime tomorrow. That is, in essence, the Nikki Haley agenda."
Gaetz made a case for Haley and DeSantis to suspend their campaigns because they have no path to victory and rally behind Trump.
"[When you have] these folks competing for also-ran status, it misses the forest for the trees. We have to go battle against Joe Biden and a mechanized left that includes Big Tech and the media and who knows … whatever new erosion of election integrity they may pursue. That's what unity in the Republican Party can bring us, greater operational capability on those fronts."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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