Politics
Trump calls DeSantis a ‘RINO GLOBALIST’ as verbal attacks heat up ahead of potential 2024 campaign showdown
Former President Donald Trump fired a new shot at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday.
Trump, the only major Republican to date to launch a 2024 Republican presidential campaign, taking aim at DeSantis — who if he jumps into the White House race later this year would instantly become Trump’s most formidable rival — with a new accusation on social media.
“The real Ron is a RINO GLOBALIST, who closed quickly down Florida and even its beaches. Loved the Vaccines and wasted big money on ‘Testing.’ How quickly people forget!,” Trump claimed in a post on his Truth Social site.
And the latest string of verbal punches from Trump directed at the Florida governor may be followed by attack ads from a well-financed super PAC that’s aligned with the former president.
DESANTIS CLAPS BACK AT TRUMP BY POINTING TO ‘SCOREBOARD’
A source in the Florida governor’s political orbit who requested anonymity to speak more freely, said Trump’s attacks show that “it’s pretty clear that Gov. DeSantis is living rent-free in Donald Trump’s head at this point.”
The newest attack from Trump follows a barrage of blistering comments the former president made on Saturday, during the first major campaign swing of his third White House run.
TRUMP TAKES AIM AT POTENTIAL 2024 GOP RIVALS, SAYING HE DOESN’T HAVE MUCH ‘COMPETITION’
“If he runs, that’s fine. I’m way up in the polls. He’s going to have to do what he wants to do, but he may run,” Trump said in an AP interview in South Carolina, a crucial early voting state that holds the third contest in the GOP presidential nominating calendar.
Trump once again pointed to his crucial support which helped then-Rep. DeSantis, an underdog at the time, capture the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2018 en-route to narrowly winning election as Florida governor.
“I do think it would be a great act of disloyalty because, you know, I got him in. He had no chance. His political life was over,” Trump said on Saturday.
Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis after taking the oath of office waves to those in attendance at his second term inauguration in Tallahassee, Florida, U.S. January 3, 2023.
(REUTERS/Octavio Jones)
The governor saw his popularity soar among conservatives across the country the past three years, courtesy of his forceful pushback against coronavirus pandemic restrictions and his aggressive actions as a conservative culture warrior going after media and corporations.
DeSantis routinely dismissed talk of a 2024 White House race for more than a year as he focused on his gubernatorial re-election. But he’s dropped some hints the past three months of a possible presidential bid, starting with his re-election victory speech in November after he cruised to an historic 19-point win in Florida, a onetime battleground state.
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The governor has already pushed legislation in the opening days of his second term that is popular with conservatives in Florida and nationwide. And, as Fox News first reported, he’ll be releasing a memoir, “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival,” later this month. Writing a book is a rite of passage for many potential and actual presidential candidates.
While Trump remains the most popular and influential politician in the GOP and arguably the party’s top fundraiser when it comes to energizing the grassroots, the first two and a half months of his latest White House bid have been anything but spectacular.
Political pundits from both the left and the right torched his campaign launch, and he’s been criticized by Democrats and some Republicans for controversial actions and comments he’s made during the past couple of months. In the wake of a lackluster performance by the GOP in the midterm elections — when the party underperformed in what many expected to be a red wave election — Trump has also been blamed for elevating polarizing Republican nominees who ended up losing in November.
While the former president remains the overall front-runner in the early 2024 GOP nomination polls, DeSantis has eclipsed him in some surveys, including a new poll last week in New Hampshire, which holds the first primary in the White House race.
DESANTIS TOPS TRUMP IN CRUCIAL PRIMARY STATE POLL
Trump, who last autumn nicknamed the Florida governor “Ron DeSanctimonious,” took aim at DeSantis over the COVID crisis while speaking with reporters aboard his campaign plane en-route to South Carolina.
“There are Republican governors that did not close their states. Florida was closed for a long period of time.” Trump said to reporters on Saturday. “They’re trying to rewrite history.”
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the South Carolina Statehouse, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023, in Columbia, S.C.
(AP)
A couple of hours earlier, as he kicked off his day with a campaign speech in New Hampshire, the state that votes second in the GOP’s presidential nominating calendar, Trump touted his poll position and recollected that he didn’t have much competition as he cruised to his 2020 renomination as the sitting president.
Then, as he looked to a potential 2024 GOP primary field that might eventually include rivals such as DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina governor and former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and other well-known Republicans, Trump asserted that “I don’t think we have competition this time either to be honest.”
2024 WATCH: NIKKI HALEY TO JOIN TRUMP IN HUNT FOR GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION
DeSantis didn’t engage or respond over the weekend to the slights from Trump.
But at a news conference in Florida on Tuesday when asked about the former president’s attacks, the governor clapped back even without mentioning Trump’s name.
“What I would just say is this. I roll out of bed, I have people attacking me from all angles,” the Florida governor said. “It’s been happening for many, many years. And if you look at the good thing about it, though, is if you take a crisis situation like COVID, you know — the good thing about it is when you’re an elected executive, you have to make all kinds of decisions. You got to steer that ship.”
DeSantis then emphasized the electoral scoreboard, saying “the good thing is that the people are able to render a judgment on that, whether they re-elect you or not. And I’m happy to say, you know, in my case, not only did we win re-election, we won with the highest percentage of the vote that any Republican governor candidate has in the history of the state of Florida.”
David Carney, a longtime national Republican consultant who’s based in New Hampshire, pointed out that “Trump’s style is to fight and anybody who pokes their head up, he’ll take a swipe at them.”
But Carney, a veteran of numerous presidential campaigns, said that the DeSantis response on Tuesday “was a clever way to deflect the issue…. A charge made that’s not responded to becomes more difficult to respond to down the road. That’s always been the truth.”
The GOP strategist in the DeSantis political orbit who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely told Fox News “I think Ron is absolutely right to point to the scoreboard because right now it shows he just won a center-right state by 19 points while Donald Trump has effectively lost three elections in a row.”
“I think Trump’s people understand that that is a powerful and potent argument that Ron’s going to be able to make and it something that they have zero credible response to,” the strategist argued.
WHY THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION RACE IS OFF TO A SLOW START
The strategist also confirmed that DeSantis political advisers are beginning to make preliminary staffing moves in Iowa, which kicks off the GOP nominating schedule, and New Hampshire, a sign that DeSantis appears to be laying the foundations for a national campaign. The news was first reported over the weekend by the Washington Post.
Trump may soon be targeting DeSantis and other potential 2024 rivals with more than just words.
Fox News confirms that top officials with MAGA Inc, the top super PAC supporting former President Donald Trump’s 2024 White House campaign, met last month to discuss lines of attack against DeSantis, Pence, Haley, and other likely contenders for the nomination.
At the meeting, which was helmed by Taylor Budowich (former Trump communications director who now steers the PAC) and Tony Fabrizio (the top pollster on Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns), opposition research that could end up in MAGA Inc. ads was discussed, and plan of attack was drawn up.
DAYTONA BEACH SHORES, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES – 2023/01/18: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis seen during a press conference on Jan. 18, 2023 in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida (Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for a New Years event at his Mar-a-Lago club on December 31, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
(Paul Hennessy/Joe Raedle)
Fox News also confirmed that in the coming weeks, MAGA Inc. officials are expected to travel to four early voting states to give road test to the lines of attack against Trump’s likely rivals, which again, could end up in ads that start running as early as March. The news was first reported Tuesday by Politico.
“MAGA Inc., through deep opposition research, tested messages, and a significant war chest, is building a GOP primary guillotine that will welcome every challenger with swift and decisive force,” Budowich told Fox News in a statement.
MAGA Inc. has the money to follow through on their plan. Trump’s political action committee, Save America, transferred $55 million to the super PAC late last year. And Fox News has confirmed that MAGA Inc. plans to hold its first fundraiser — at Mar-a-Lago — on Feb. 23.
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The verbal fireworks in recent days appears to be just an appetizer of things to come as the 2024 cycle heats up.
“We’re going to see a lot of this,” Carney predicted. “This is going to be no cakewalk for anybody.”
Politics
House Republicans accuse NIH of ‘stonewalling’ on ‘supercharged monkeypox experiment’
House Republicans are pressing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for answers after the agency funded research experiments they say could result in a “supercharged” monkeypox virus.
In a letter to acting NIH Director Lawrence Tabak, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and two subcommittee chairmen are demanding that the agency turn over documents and information regarding a government-funded experiment that reportedly involves swapping monkepox genes with a deadlier version of the virus. The lawmakers want to know whether this project was approved by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) review board tasked with oversight of research involving enhanced pathogens that could potentially cause a pandemic.
This letter is a follow-up to an October 31, 2022, letter to which Republicans say the NIH never responded. GOP lawmakers accused NIH of “stonewalling” in a press release.
“Based on the available information, it appears the project is reasonably anticipated to yield a lab-generated monkeypox virus that is 1,000 times more lethal in mice than the monkeypox virus currently circulating in humans and that transmits as efficiently as the monkeypox virus currently circulating in humans. The risk-benefit ratio indicates potentially serious risks without clear civilian practical applications,” the Republicans wrote.
This image provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) shows a colorized transmission electron micrograph of monkeypox particles (red) found within an infected cell (blue), cultured in the laboratory that was captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. (NIAID via AP, File)
“Accordingly, this experiment would seem to involve risks reasonably anticipated to create, transfer, or use [potential pandemic pathogens] resulting from the enhancement of a pathogen’s transmissibility or virulence in humans. Thus, under the circumstances, we are interested in learning whether this experiment was reviewed under the HHS P3CO framework used to review research proposals posing significant biosafety or biosecurity risks.”
The project leader is Dr. Bernard Moss, a veteran poxvirus researcher at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. An article in Science magazine described his efforts to learn the differences between two variants of monkeypox virus: clade 2, the West African variant that caused a global outbreak last year, and clade 1, which is believed to be deadlier and has caused outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo for decades.
Moss’ research involves swapping the genes of the two variants, one at a time, to discover whether a specific gene in the clade 1 virus makes it deadlier. The Republicans want to know whether these lab experiments could artificially enhance the clade 2 variant.
AFRICA’S CDC HOPES MPOX VACCINES WILL ARRIVE IN ‘ANOTHER TWO WEEKS,’ AFTER MONTHS OF SEEKING DOSES
This 1997 image provided by the CDC during an investigation into an outbreak of monkeypox, which took place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire, depicts the dorsal surfaces of the hands of a monkeypox case patient, who was displaying the appearance of the characteristic rash during its recuperative stage. (CDC via AP, File)
Such research, known as “gain-of-function,” is highly controversial, because it involves extracting viruses from animals to artificially engineer in a laboratory to make them more transmissible and deadly to humans. Proponents say these experiments can help scientists understand the nature of viruses and develop new treatments and vaccines. Skeptics warn that gain-of-function experiments are one lab accident away from causing another global pandemic.
Moss did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
FOX NEWS POLL: MAJORITY SAYS BIDEN TRYING TO COVER UP ORIGINS OF COVID-19
Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, led a letter to acting NIH Director Lawrence Tabak demanding answers on a government-funded project involving a manipulated monkeypox virus. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“Human disease associated with clade 2 or West African monkeypox virus infection is less severe and is associated with less than one percent mortality, whereas clade 1 or Congo Basin monkeypox infection has a 10 percent case fatality rate in unvaccinated persons,” the Republicans wrote. “Because of its significantly greater lethality, clade 1 or Congo Basin clade monkeypox viruses are regulated as select agents by the Federal Select Agents Program. Entities that possess, use, or transfer this agent must comply with the HHS Select Agent and Toxin Regulations unless there is an applicable exemption or exclusion.
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“Thus,” the letter continues, “under these regulations, it would appear the clade 1 monkeypox virus experiment is a restricted experiment that must be reviewed by the Federal Select Agent Program, and may be further reviewed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s (CDC’s) Intragovernmental Select Agents and Toxins Technical Advisory Committee (ISATTAC).”
The Republicans want NIH officials and employees to testify about Moss’ project and other related matters. They gave NIH an April 13, 2023, deadline to respond to their inquiry.
Politics
DeSantis targets Biden in swing state Pennsylvania, says Democratic Party ‘dead’ in Florida
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took multiple jabs at President Biden on Saturday during a stump speech in Pennsylvania.
DeSantis, speaking at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference 2023, called Biden a “floundering leader” and said the president’s poor performance contributed to Republican gains.
“We are in the highest percentage of the vote that any Republican candidate for governor has ever received in the history of the state of Florida,” DeSantis told the audience. “We were able to flip Democrat counties or urban counties like Miami-Dade County. And not only did we flip it, we won it by double digits.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference. (Screenshot/)
“It’s been a massive defeat for the Democratic Party,” the Florida governor said. “They did not want to see Florida go red. They threw everything but the kitchen sink to stop us. And yet, we have left the Democratic Party for dead in the state of Florida.”
The Florida governor has been walking a political tightrope for months as he refuses to officially declare his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
At the same time, he has butted heads with both the Biden administration and former President Donald Trump’s campaign — both of whom view him as a rival for the presidency.
TRUMP ALLIES STEP UP ATTACKS ON DESANTIS AHEAD OF 2024: ‘HE’S NOT READY TO BE PRESIDENT’
In speeches this year, the governor has pitched his numerous conservative policy victories in Florida as a roadmap for the entire nation.
Sources in DeSantis’ wider orbit have said that any presidential campaign launch would come in the late spring or early summer, after the end of Florida’s current legislative session.
However, the governor’s recent stops in the early-voting states of Iowa and Nevada and a trip next month to New Hampshire are sparking more 2024 speculation.
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President Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis touring an area impacted by Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, in October 2022. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
DeSantis said earlier this week that his state “will not assist” in any extradition request by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg amid what he called “questionable circumstances” while slamming the charges against Trump as “un-American” and a “weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda.”
The former president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on Thursday after a years-long investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Politics
Biden visits University of Pennsylvania campus for the first time since classified documents controversy
President Biden on Saturday visited the campus of the University of Pennsylvania for the first time since a controversy over the discovery of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center in Washington D.C.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden stopped by the university to visit Maisy Biden’s senior art show at a university gallery. It marks the first time Biden has visited the campus since the emergence in November of documents with classified markings at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C.
Those documents were said to be from the Obama-Biden administration and were discovered “unexpectedly” by Biden’s personal attorneys. The emergence of the documents was followed by assessments by the FBI and Department of Justice.
BIDEN HAS ‘NO COMMENT’ ON TRUMP INDICTMENT
President Biden talks with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington Friday, March 31, 2023, before boarding Marine One. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
In January, the Department of Justice announced it was investigating the discovery of the documents, and Attorney General Merrick Garland said he was appointing Robert Hur as special counsel.
Attorneys also found batches of documents at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware. Four batches of classified materials have been found in Biden’s possession in total, dating from both his time as vice president and as a senator from Delaware.
DOJ SEARCHES BIDEN DELAWARE BEACH HOME AMID CLASSIFIED DOCUMENT INVESTIGATION
In February, FBI agents searched Biden’s vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, for three and a half hours but did not find additional classified documents. The search was carried out on Hur’s first day on the job as special counsel.
Biden has addressed the controversy, saying his team is cooperating fully with the DOJ and suggested that his staff was to blame for not finding the documents when he left office in 2017.
WHITE HOUSE STONEWALLS FOX NEWS’ PETER DOOCY ON BIDEN CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS: ‘WHY DID HE DO IT?’
President Biden delivers remarks during a meeting with Democratic congressional leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House Jan. 24, 2023. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“But one of the things that happened is that what was not done well is as they packed up my offices to move them, they didn’t do the kind of job that should have been done to go thoroughly through every single piece of literature that’s there,” Biden said. “But I’ll just let the investigation, you know, decide what’s going on, and we’ll see what happens.”
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House Republicans have promised to investigate Biden’s handling of classified materials, with Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., telling Fox News that “nothing that Joe Biden’s done with respect to mishandling these classified documents is normal.”
Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo and Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.
House Republicans accuse NIH of ‘stonewalling’ on ‘supercharged monkeypox experiment’
DeSantis targets Biden in swing state Pennsylvania, says Democratic Party ‘dead’ in Florida
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