Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida escalated his hostilities with former President Donald J. Trump on Friday, arguing that his Republican presidential rival was weak on crime and immigration, and accusing him of ceding critical decision-making during the coronavirus pandemic to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci.<\/p>\n
In an appearance with the conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, Mr. DeSantis accused Mr. Trump, the G.O.P. front-runner, of \u201cmoving left\u201d on criminal justice and immigration issues after winning over the party\u2019s base in 2015 and 2016.<\/p>\n
He pledged that he would repeal what is known as the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice measure signed into law by Mr. Trump in 2018 that expanded early-release programs and modified sentencing laws, including mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe enacted a bill, basically a jailbreak bill,\u201d Mr. DeSantis said. \u201cIt has allowed dangerous people out of prison who have now reoffended and really, really hurt a number of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year, The New York Times reported that Mr. DeSantis and his allies saw the criminal justice bill, which Mr. Trump signed at the urging of his son-in-law Jared Kushner \u2014 and instantly regretted \u2014 as an area of political weakness, and that Mr. DeSantis had signaled he would use it in the nomination fight. The bill is unpopular with parts of Mr. Trump\u2019s hard-core base.<\/p>\n
But for Mr. DeSantis, assailing Mr. Trump over the First Step Act is potentially complicated. Mr. DeSantis himself voted for the first version of the bill when he was in Congress, and Trump allies have sought to highlight that fact.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo now Swampy Politician Ron DeSanctimonious is claiming he voted for it before he voted against it,\u201d Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Mr. Trump, said in a statement. \u201cHe sounds just like John Kerry. What a phony! He can\u2019t run away from his disastrous, embarrassing, and low-energy campaign announcement. Rookie mistakes and unforced errors \u2014 that\u2019s who he is.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Mr. DeSantis\u2019s allies note that the version of the bill he voted for looked significantly different, and that the final version passed when he was no longer in the House.)<\/p>\n
When Mr. Shapiro asked Mr. DeSantis about Mr. Trump\u2019s recent criticism that crime had risen on his watch in Florida, the former president\u2019s adopted state, Mr. DeSantis bristled and said Mr. Trump\u2019s policies had undermined law and order.<\/p>\n
Mr. DeSantis stepped up his attacks on his onetime ally, whom he had avoided criticizing directly for months, less than 48 hours after he entered the race in a bumpy Twitter event.<\/p>\n
And as Mr. DeSantis seems to veer to the right on issues like crime, some of his campaign\u2019s internal strategy is coming to light.<\/p>\n
At a fund-raising meeting in Miami on Thursday, donors peppered Mr. DeSantis\u2019s top campaign staff members with questions about his policy positions and how they should be presented to other Republicans, according to a leaked audio recording posted online by the website Florida Politics.<\/p>\n
One donor raised a question about the rightward shift, to which a campaign official eventually responded, \u201cWe just got to win a primary in order to be in a general.\u201d<\/p>\n
The donors and officials also discussed how to talk to Republicans who support abortion rights. (Mr. DeSantis last month signed a six-week abortion ban in Florida, which contains limited exceptions, while Mr. Trump has been hesitant to support a federal ban.)<\/p>\n
A staff member offered one possible answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbortion is safe, legal and rare in Florida,\u201d he said, parroting a phrase coined by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. \u201cIt has not been banned,\u201d he added. \u201cIt is limited.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his interview with Mr. Shapiro on Friday, Mr. DeSantis sought to cast himself as unwavering on illegal immigration, saying that Mr. Trump had attacked him for opposing amnesty legislation while in Congress.<\/p>\n
He also faulted Mr. Trump for his administration\u2019s handling of the coronavirus outbreak in 2020, especially the level of influence exerted by Dr. Fauci, the longtime top infectious disease expert and face of the federal government\u2019s pandemic response.<\/p>\n
Dr. Fauci, who retired in January, has been a frequent target of Republican attacks over issues like remote learning, stay-at-home orders and vaccine mandates.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe responded by elevating Anthony Fauci and really turning the reins over to Dr. Fauci, and I think to terrible consequences for the United States,\u201d Mr. DeSantis said. \u201cI was the leader in this country in fighting back against Fauci. We bucked him every step of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that Dr. Fauci should have been fired, but Mr. Trump had honored him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the fact that Donald Trump gave Anthony Fauci a presidential commendation on Trump\u2019s last day in office, that was a gut punch to millions of people around this country who were harmed by Fauci\u2019s lockdowns,\u201d Mr. DeSantis said.<\/p>\n
A day earlier, in a post by Mr. Trump on his Truth Social platform, the former president slammed Mr. DeSantis over Florida\u2019s response to the pandemic. He said that even former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York had done a better job limiting the loss of lives to the virus than Mr. DeSantis had.<\/p>\n
Mr. DeSantis described Mr. Trump\u2019s claim as \u201cvery bizarre,\u201d and said that it suggested he would double down on his actions if there were another pandemic.<\/p>\n