By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON (Associated Press)
MIAMI (AP) — Miami Mayor Francis Suarez introduced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday, leaping into the crowded race simply days after GOP front-runner Donald Trump appeared in courtroom on federal costs in Suarez’s metropolis.
The 45-year-old mayor, the one Hispanic candidate within the race, declared his candidacy in paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday. He had beforehand teased an announcement, noting that he could be making a “big speech” on Thursday on the Reagan Library in California.
Announcing his run on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Thursday, Suarez repeatedly tried to keep away from answering questions on Trump’s conduct and the costs in his indictment, saying he didn’t know “all the details about how he handled classified information.”
When reminded that he was working towards Trump, Suarez replied, “You see, that’s where you’re wrong. I’m running to be the president of the United States, and I’m running against Joe Biden’s America — an America where the poor get poorer, an America where America gets weaker, an America where if things don’t change China will be the lone superpower. That’s what I’m running for.”
Suarez, the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, is the son of Miami’s first Cuban-born mayor. He has gained nationwide consideration in recent times for his efforts to lure corporations to Miami, with a watch towards turning town right into a crypto hub and the subsequent Silicon Valley.
Suarez,is vying to turn out to be the primary sitting mayor elected president, becoming a member of a GOP major combat that features Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Despite having a candidate subject within the double digits, the race is basically seen as a two-person contest between Trump and DeSantis.
But the opposite rivals are hoping for a gap, which Trump has offered together with his myriad authorized vulnerabilities — none extra severe than his federal indictment on costs of mishandling delicate paperwork and refusing to present them again. He pleaded not responsible on Tuesday in Miami federal courtroom to 37 felony counts.
Before Trump arrived on the Miami courthouse on Tuesday, Suarez toured the media encampment sporting a T-shirt with a police emblem, as his metropolis’s police pressure had jurisdiction over the downtown space.
Suarez has stated he didn’t help Trump within the 2016 or 2020 presidential elections, as a substitute writing within the names of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and then-Vice President Pence. In 2018, Suarez publicly condemned Trump after studies got here out that he had questioned why the United States would settle for extra immigrants from Haiti and Africa, which Trump described utilizing a vulgar epithet.
But instances have modified, with Trump advisers now praising Suarez’s work and serving to him promote what he calls “the Miami success story.” Trump’s former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has even floated Suarez’s identify as a attainable vice presidential decide.
Suarez, who’s married with two younger kids, is a company and actual property legal professional who beforehand served as a metropolis of Miami commissioner. He has additionally positioned himself as somebody who might help the social gathering additional join with Hispanics. In current months, he has made visits to early GOP voting states as he weighed a attainable 2024 marketing campaign.
He is extra average than DeSantis and Trump however has threaded the needle rigorously on cultural points which have turn out to be widespread amongst GOP politicians.
Suarez has been essential of DeSantis, dismissing among the state legal guidelines he has signed on immigration as “headline grabbers” missing in substance. He has stated immigration is a matter that “screams for a national solution” at a time when many Republicans again hard-line insurance policies.
The two-term mayor beforehand expressed help for a Florida regulation championed by DeSantis and dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” that bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender id in kindergarten via third grade, however he has not specified whether or not he supported the growth of the coverage to all grades. Like different Republicans, Suarez has criticized DeSantis’ feud with Disney over the identical regulation, saying it seems to be like a “personal vendetta.”
Further ingratiating himself with the Trump workforce, Suarez has echoed Trump’s assaults on DeSantis’ demeanor, saying the governor doesn’t make eye contact and struggles with private relationships with different politicians.
In 2020, the mayor made a play to draw tech corporations to Florida after the state relaxed its COVID-19 restrictions. He met with Big Tech gamers and buyers similar to PayPal founder Peter Thiel and tech magnate Marcelo Claure, started showing on nationwide tv and was profiled by magazines.
Suarez, who has stated he takes his wage in Bitcoin, has additionally hosted Bitcoin conferences and began closely selling a cryptocurrency undertaking named Miami Coin, created by a gaggle referred to as City Coins.
But the hype dissipated as coronavirus restrictions eased elsewhere, eliminating Miami’s benefit on the COVID-19 entrance. Suarez’s imaginative and prescient additionally hit roadblocks with the collapse of the cryptocurrency trade FTX, which was set to maneuver its U.S. headquarters to Miami’s monetary district earlier than its founder and CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, was arrested within the Bahamas final December.
The solely cryptocurrency trade that traded Miami Coin suspended its buying and selling, citing liquidity issues, not dwelling as much as its promise to generate sufficient cash to remove metropolis taxes.
Miami additionally ranks among the many worst huge U.S. cities for earnings inequality and has one of many least reasonably priced housing markets.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”