Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis took on President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump during his first official campaign tour to Iowa this week.
Approximately 500 people packed into a church in Des Moines to watch the governor of Florida speak on a variety of issues plaguing the country, including a spiraling national debt, Mexican drug cartels, millions of illegal aliens flooding the U.S. southern border, and more.
DeSantis hit the Biden administration for “doing all it can to make it harder for the average family to make ends meet and to attain and maintain a middle-class lifestyle.”
“Biden is deliberately trying to kneecap our energy production,” he said. “And he’s trying to force Americans into electric vehicles, which will make us more reliant on China who provides most of the materials for the batteries.”
DeSantis blasted the political Left for infecting America’s institutions with radical cultural ideals, which he said has sewn “divisions in our society and devalues merit and achievement.”
“Restoring sanity means we can’t have every major institution in our country going on ideological joy rides, we have to be guided by reality, by facts and by our enduring principles,” he said. “Merit must trump identity politics.”
"Restoring sanity means we cannot have every major institution in our country going on ideological joyrides. We have to be guided by reality, by facts, and by our enduring principles."
– @RonDeSantis pic.twitter.com/8DzJmN89uH
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) May 30, 2023
DeSantis spoke about the need to restore the U.S. military because “morale is declining and recruiting is suffering” and touted his record in responding to the COVID pandemic while blasting public health bureaucrats like Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“We in the state of Florida held the line when freedom hung in the balance, we refused to allow our state to descend into some type of Fauci dystopia, where people’s livelihoods were destroyed and their freedoms were curtailed,” he said. “We protected people’s rights. And like Governor Kim Reynolds, we ensured our kids had the right to be in school in person. In Florida, we chose freedom over Faucism, and we are better for doing that.”
DeSantis also took a shot at Republicans who sided with Disney as the state has battled with the company in recent months.
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“I’m not backing down one end. We run the state of Florida. They do not run the state of Florida,” he said. “I know all these Republicans are lining up against me to take the side of Disney. But I’ll tell you this, we stand for the protection of our children. We will fight those who seek to rob them of their innocence. And on that point, there will be no compromise.”
DeSantis: “I know all these Republicans are lining up against me to take the side of Disney, but I’ll tell you this … We stand for the protection of our children. We will fight those who seek to rob them of their innocence and on that point THERE WILL BE NO COMPROMISE.” pic.twitter.com/Eaq90YkYBz
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) May 31, 2023