Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley debated Wednesday night at Drake University in Des Moines Iowa, days ahead of the Iowa caucuses.
DeSantis criticized Haley for supporting a two-state solution during her tenure as US Ambassador to the UN and said under no circumstances if president would he pressure Israel to do "a so-called two-state solution."
DeSantis said he would not tell Israel to remove Palestinians from Gaza as "there's a lot of issues with that," but if Israel made that calculation to "avert a second holocaust, they need to do that."
DeSantis touted his administration's efforts after October 7 such as his executive order which chartered flights bringing over 700 Americans home from Israel. He also boasted his administration's recent order waiving out-of-state tuition for students facing antisemitism and racial discrimination at their universities.
Haley vs DeSantis
Haley said the priority should be to give Israel "whatever it wants" to eliminate Hamas and do whatever it takes to bring the hostages home.
When asked about conducting retaliatory strikes inside Iran, Haley said, "We need to go and take out every bit of the production that they had that's allowing them to do those strikes. It's hugely important that you do that."
Haley said President Joe Biden's response to Iran has been slow.