'This Week' Transcript 1-14-24: Gov. Ron DeSantis & Gov. JB Pritzker

Gov. Ron DeSantis & Gov. JB Pritzker were on «This Week» Sunday, January 1. This is a rush transcript and may be updated.

JONATHAN KARL, ABC «THIS WEEK» CO-ANCHOR: And we are joined now by — from Iowa, from Bettendorf, Iowa, by Republican presidential candidate Governor Ron DeSantis.

Governor DeSantis, good morning, and thank you for joining us.

So, let me ask you, your closing argument now to those voters who — those Republicans who plan to go tomorrow night and to caucus for Donald Trump, what is your closing argument to them to say, come vote for me instead?

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, Donald Trump's running for his issues. I'm running for your issues and your family's issues and solely to turn this country around. I've delivered on 100 percent of my promises. Donald Trump, obviously, didn't build the wall, didn't drain the swamp, and didn't reduce the debt. I've also taken on and beaten the Democrats and the left. And in reality, Donald Trump, as president, oftentimes got beat by the Democrats at the border. He got beat on debt. And so we have an opportunity to have a two-term president, someone that's going to be able to win decisively, and then actually bring all this stuff into fruition. And I'm the guy to do it.

KARL: You say Donald Trump is running for his issues. What do you mean by that? What are Donald Trump's issues?

DESANTIS: Well, he's focused a lot on things that concern him. Obviously, the distractions of everything that's going along with all these legal issues has been a huge thing for him. You're going to have criminal trials. You're going to have a lot of focus on things like January 6th by the media. And I think that ends up focusing the election on things that are going