DeSantis says if Biden spent ‘less time talking about Florida and more time doing his job’ US troops might not have died in Afghanistan: Governor hits out at president in latest sign he may be considering run for president
Far from his home state of Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis railed against President Biden, not the Democrats challenging him in next year's gubernatorial race, at a political fundraising event in Nebraska over the weekend.
'If you watch Biden, he always has to talk about Florida loves talking about things that we're doing down there,' DeSantis said Sunday. 'If he spent a little less time talking about Florida and more time doing his job as commander in chief, we might not have 13 service members who were killed in action in Afghanistan because of his ineptitude and dereliction of duty.
DeSantis was joined by other Republican heavyweights rumored to be considering a 2024 presidential run, Sen. Ted Cruz and former Vice President Mike Pence.
'My message from Florida is this: When Joe Biden violates the Constitution, when Joe Biden attacks the jobs of Floridians and Americans, when Joe Biden targets the livelihood of Florida families and American families, I am fighting back against him,' DeSantis said at Gov. Pete Ricketts' annual steak-fry fundraiser on Sunday in Nebraska City, just a few miles from first-in-the-nation caucus host state Iowa.
DeSantis' Nebraska appearance is one of at least 12 out of state trips he's taken since May, as he basks in his newfound popularity and sets himself up well-positioned for a potential run in 2024 should Trump sit out the race.
'When Joe Biden targets the livelihood of Florida families and American families, I am fighting back against him,' DeSantis said in Nebraska over the weekend
DeSantis claimed that America's greatest adversaries neither fear nor respect President Biden after the US' chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan
DeSantis claimed that America's greatest adversaries neither fear nor respect President Biden.
'They are watching what happens, in China and in Iran and in North Korea and in Moscow,' DeSantis said. 'Those countries feared Donald Trump. They don't fear Joe Biden and they don't respect Joe Biden.'
The Florida governor has become a darling of the right with his hands-off pandemic approach. Over the summer he banned mask and vaccine mandates across the state.
DeSantis' Nebraska appearance is one of at least 12 out of state trips he's taken since May, as he basks in his newfound popularity and sets himself up well-positioned for a potential run in 2024 should Trump sit out the race.
But last week, the Florida governor threw cold water on the idea he was looking ahead to 2024.
'All the speculation about me is purely manufactured,' he said in a Florida press conference last week. 'I just do my job and we work hard… I hear all this stuff and honestly it's nonsense.'
DeSantis has traded barbs with the president all summer. Biden said last month he would sue states that blocked school mask mandates, and DeSantis replied that Biden should worry more about Afghanistan burning.
'I mean, you gotta wonder, where are your priorities that you're so obsessed with this issue and so obsessed with taking away parents' rights?' he said on Fox News' Hannity.
'And you're letting Afghanistan burn, our border burn, and so many other things in our country fall to pieces', he said.
The Florida governor claimed in Nebraska that Biden 'is so mad that in the state of Florida, we protect the rights of parents to be able to send their kindergartners to school without having to wear a mask for eight hours a day. That is something that he thinks is such a bad thing. But I think I understand why he is so concerned about Florida, because we're leading on the issues that matter and we represent a brick wall when it comes to Biden's agenda.'
DeSantis did not bring up his own reelection campaign, but predicted Republicans would 'do very well' in 2022 thanks to Biden.
'We're going to do very well in 2022. Thank you, Biden, for being such a lousy president, waking up half of America.'
DeSantis also hit back against the Biden administration's sweeping new vaccine mandates, where companies with over 100 employees must require their workers to get vaccinated or be tested for Covid-19 once a week.
'I am fighting back against him,' DeSantis said, nodding to legal action being discussed by Republican governors. 'We are going to be on the front line with a full spectrum response.'
Cruz, R-Texas, in his Nebraska appearance, described the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan as US forces withdrew a 'disaster.'
'Every enemy of America is taking the measure of the man in the Oval Office and everyone, everyone of them has determined that the president is weak and ineffective,' Cruz said.
Thirteen US service members were among the over 170 who lost their lives in a suicide explosion on Aug. 26.
'The chaos that followed, and the loss of 13 extraordinary servicemen and women, including a hero from right here in Nebraska, broke my heart because it never had to happen,' Pence said in his address.
Potential GOP contenders for 2024 are in limbo until Trump makes a formal announcement on whether he'll run in 2024, though the former president's most recent hints make a third Trump candidacy look more likely.
'I know what I'm going to do, but we're not supposed to be talking about it yet,' Trump said Saturday, while visiting with New York City police and fire officials, according to The New York Post. 'But I think you're going to be happy, let me put it that way.'
