We might get another Republican from Florida gunning for the GOP nomination, as Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said on “Fox and Friends” Sunday that he’s planning a “major announcement” soon. Should he join the fray, he’d go up against two already-announced heavyweights from the Sunshine State, former President Donald Trump, who’s at the top of the polls, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who’s a distant second.
Asked what exactly he planned to announce, the mayor was coy:
My announcement is to stay tuned. Next week, like you said, I’m going to be making a big speech in the Reagan Library, and I think it’s one that Americans should tune into.
He’s reportedly been considering a presidential run for months and has visited four early primary states. According to the Reagan Foundation, Suarez will appear at the Santa-Clarita, CA library on June 15 for the “A Time of Choosing” speaker series. From the library’s announcement:
Mayor Suarez was first elected with a mandate of 86 percent and then re- elected with a mandate of nearly 79 percent. Under his leadership, Miami has cut crime and cut taxes to one of their lowest points in over fifty years, spurring a broad-based economic expansion across Miami. His father, Xavier Suarez, was Miami’s first-ever Cuban-American mayor.
Asked what he would focus on in his possible presidential run, Suarez talked about the decline of America under Joe Biden and how it needs to stop:
I’m going to be making, like you said, a big speech in the Reagan Library and I think it’s one that America should tune into. It’s where we talk about what the future of our country should be. It should be a future that creates prosperity, not poverty, a future that promotes freedom and liberty, not cancel culture like we’ve seen.
You know, we’ve had our forefathers and so many fight and die for our freedom, and we’re seeing it eroded every single day like we said, of a future that confronts our enemies on all fronts and doesn’t project weakness and incompetence like we’re doing now, and I think most importantly, a future where we are not scared to compete.
We are in incredibly disruptive moment in our history and we need to step up as a country and understand where the dynamism is going so that we can position ourselves.
Watch part one:
Asked about the recent indictment of Trump, Suarez expressed concern:
What what I’ve been hearing from Republicans that I’ve spoken to is a frustration, a growing frustration, with our institutions, not just the press, which has an all time low rating and trust, but also justice, which is a pillar of a democratic society. The trust in our Justice Department has been eroded as well. These are core institutions that in a democracy must have the people’s trust.
And when you see things like this that have political overtones, it’s very frustrating for people.
He goes on to say we have a two-tiered system of justice in this country:
…I think that part of this is that–did it have to get to this point? You know this is unprecedented. You have someone who’s running for president of the United States and is being prosecuted on multiple fronts, and there may be more prosecutions coming, you know, coming down.
This is just, just feels un-American.
It feels wrong at some level, and I think people are very frustrated that they don’t see the equal application of justice, that they don’t see the same fervor, the same intensity of investigations and prosecutions on the other side of the aisle.
Watch part two here: