DeSantis dings Haley for proposing school security similar to airports after Iowa shooting

CUMMING, Iowa — Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) mocked former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley for contending schools should have security similar to airports after a deadly school shooting in Iowa.

"Haley said this should be like an airport," DeSantis told a crowd Friday in Cumming, Iowa. "We don't want our kids going through TSA now, but there's commonsense things that you can do and we've got the resources for that."

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DeSantis and Haley have been asked about how they would reduce school shootings, as they both seek to protect Second Amendment gun rights, after a sixth grader was killed by a 17-year-old in Perry this week, days before the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses. In his answer, DeSantis reflected on the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, which occurred before he was governor.

"It was a shocking thing, but it really caused a lot of these parents to get behind really strong reforms for school security," DeSantis said. "Some of these students ... clearly have problems. We need to address these problems."

"My first week in office, I removed the sheriff of Broward County for the ineptitude," he added. "We've taken all of that experience and done over a billion dollars for school security, but in ways that are sensible."

DeSantis, underscoring how he and his wife Casey have three young children, repeated how he would empower local and state governments over their federal counterparts.

"Parents out there can count on me as somebody that's going to put the safety of our kids and the safety of our schools on the front burner," he said. "It's important."

DeSantis was also asked about whether former President Donald Trump took part in an insurrection on Jan. 6 amid a Supreme Court challenge to his ballot access under the 14th Amendment. The governor described Jan. 6 as a demonstration encouraged by Trump that "devolved into a riot," and then compared record migration permitted by President Joe Biden as "giving aid and comfort to some type of rebellion or insurrection and then he gets off the ballot."

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"This will open up a Pandora's box with all this stuff," he said.

Haley told a likely Iowan caucusgoer on CNN this week schools should be secured like airports and courthouses to "make sure that we have whatever we need to make sure that nothing comes through — bullet-wise or otherwise."