In his first appearance in Iowa since officially declaring his 2024 GOP presidential primary campaign, Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis took shots at his chief rivals for the White House.
He vowed to permanently send President Joe Biden back to his basement, and took a veiled shot at former President Donald Trump for having canceled an Iowa rally a few weeks ago.
"It is great to be back," DeSantis told his rally crowd Tuesday night at the Eternity Church in Clive, Iowa, just west of Des Moines. "And it's great for me to report that our great American comeback starts by sending Joe Biden back to his basement in Delaware.
"He spends so much of his time as president on vacation, we might as well make it permanent."
DeSantis then turned his remarks to the polling leader, mocking Trump for canceling his May 13 Iowa rally in Des Moines due to tornado warnings — albeit without mentioning Trump by name or the canceled rally.
"A few weeks ago we were in state: We were not actually scheduled to come to the Des Moines area, but before we decamped back to Florida, the weather was so nice we felt that we just had to come back and pay everyone a little bit of a visit," DeSantis said with a wry smile. "We appreciated that."
DeSantis' newly launched campaign began a three-state, 12-city tour that will include New Hampshire and South Carolina, the first two primary states.
DeSantis' speech took aim at the Washington, D.C., establishment in addition to Biden and Trump.
"The elites are not enacting an agenda to represent us, they are imposing their agenda on us via the federal government, via corporate America, and via our own education system — all for their benefit and all to our detriment," he said.
"But it does not have to be this way. American decline is not inevitable, it is a choice. And we must choose a new direction for our country. We must choose a path that will lead to a revival of American greatness."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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