desantis fight harder. >> he's going after nikki haley quite a bit in ads, what do you think about iginla? >> that fine but nikki heal isn't the leader, you know, donald trump is, so that's -- that's where it needs to be. >> 12 days before iowa opens the voting in the gop primary, trump holds a commanding lead, yet he's emerged nearly unscathed, at least in the onslaught of attack ads from his rivals. departmentis and two allied groups supporting his candidacy support $7.6 million targeting haley in iowa last year compared to less than $2100,000 for trump. haley and her leading superpac spent $10 million targeting desantis and $1.5 million at trump. it's a dizzying back and forth with allies of haley mocking desantis >> you can't beat trump by trying to be trump. >> and belittle the management of his campaign and superpac. >> in a world of chaos the last thing america needs is another dumpster fire. >> supporters of desantis casting haley as a flip-flopper.
lead over all his challengers. but refusing to take part in any debates. jeff zeleny picks up this story. >> reporter: time is running short in the race for second place. florida governor ron desantis -- >> what you are able to in iowa will reverberate all across the country. >> reporter: and nikki haley -- >> they don't see the momentum we have on the ground. we've got it in iowa, we've got it in new hampshire. >> reporter: not only locked in a birth fight for the republican nomination, fwout but for the ro confront donald trump head-on. their collision course has left trump in a frontrunner el's lanf his own. >> i think that he needs to go after trump and i don't see him doing it. >> reporter: garcia asked desantis why he had gone soft on trump, a question the governor took issue with. >> i've articulated all the differences time and time again on the campaign trail. >> reporter: when we caught up with garcia, he told us he wanted to see desantis fight