Ron DeSantis says he will debate two empty podiums in New Hampshire

Following his second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, Ron DeSantis clapped back at third-place Nikki Haley after she declared that she would only agree to participate in another debate if Donald Trump took the stage alongside her.

DeSantis suggested his fellow Republican presidential candidate was just "afraid," and vowed to follow through with his promise to debate in New Hampshire even if he's on stage next to "two empty podiums."

"We've had five great debates in this campaign," Haley wrote in a post on X. "Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them. He has nowhere left to hide. The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden. I look forward to it."

"Nikki Haley is afraid to debate because she doesn't want to answer the tough questions such as how she got rich off Boeing after giving them millions in taxpayer handouts as governor of South Carolina," DeSantis fired back in his own post on X. "The reality is that she is not running for the nomination, she's running to be Trump’s VP."

"I won't snub New Hampshire voters like both Nikki Haley and Donald Trump," he continued, "and plan to honor my commitments. I look forward to debating two empty podiums in the Granite State this week."

As the New York Post reports, while campaigning in Haley's home state of South Carolina, the Florida governor said she "owe[s] the people of New Hampshire a debate."

Both DeSantis and Haley were called out on social media for their comments, with many pointing out that following Donald Trump's decisive victory in Iowa on Monday, there was no point in either of them running.

"It's over man," fellow Floridian Rep. Matt Gaetz told DeSantis.

"You just lost by 32 points," another user said in reply to Haley's post. "What's there to debate?"

At the end of the night, Trump came in first with 51 percent of the vote, while DeSantis and Haley trailed far behind at 21.2 percent and 19.1 percent, respectively.