The months-long back-and-forth between President Joe Biden and Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis continued this weekend, with DeSantis saying Biden is picking a fight with Floridians and should expect to get one back from their governor.
"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 livelihoods of Florida families and American families, I am fighting back against him," DeSantis told a political fundraising event Sunday for Nebraska GOP Gov. Pete Ricketts in Nebraska City, Nebraska, according to a video circulating from the event.
DeSantis has pointed to Biden's attempts to exert executive authority on state and local governments outside of the constructs permitted in the U.S. constitution, including imposing federal vaccination or testing mandates on companies larger than 100 employees.
"He's got no authority to do what he's doing," DeSantis continued. "He even admitted he couldn't do this, and this administration admitted that.
"So, we're going to stand up for people's jobs. We're going to stand up for people's freedoms and their livelihoods and when Biden is violating the Constitution we are going to be on the front line with the full-spectrum response.
"And that is the least that we can be doing."
Biden should be less focused on attacking Floridians, and more concerned with protecting our service members and national security, according to DeSantis.
"If you watch Biden, he always has to talk about Florida, loves talking about things that we're doing down there," DeSantis said. "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 expounded on his criticism of Biden's handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal that swiftly handed the country and billions in taxpayer-funded military equipment over to the Taliban.
"He's embarrassed this country by leaving billions of dollars of military equipment in the hands of terrorist groups," DeSantis added. "That's equipment that the taxpayers funded and our men and women used for years over there. And he committed, I think, one of the cardinal sins — when you're talking about military operations ... leave nobody behind.
"And he violated that principle and our country is worse off for it."
DeSantis, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and former Vice President Mike Pence attended Gov. Pete Ricketts’ annual steak-fry fundraiser in Nebraska City, a town in the state’s southeastern corner and just a few miles from Iowa, traditionally the first state to vote in presidential primaries.
Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, was in New York City for the 20th anniversary of 9/11, teasing a 2024 presidential election campaign that would be announced when "campaign finance laws" allow, telling NYPD officers they would "be very happy" with his ultimate decision.
DeSantis thanked Biden "for being such a lousy president, waking up half of America," saying "we're going to do very well in 2022" midterm elections, when DeSantis is waging a reelection campaign for governor.
Biden "is so mad that in the state of Florida, we protect the rights of parents to be able to send their kindergarteners to school without having to wear a mask for eight hours a day," DeSantis told the Nebraska fundraiser, according to Fox News. "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."
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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