Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
US GOVERNOR RON DeSantis kicked off a multistate campaign blitz aimed at establishing himself as the Republican Party’s leading next-generation culture warrior while bolstering his place as Donald Trump’s chief rival.
In a fiery speech in Iowa during his first campaign event for the 2024 GOP nomination yesterday, he called American decline avoidable and offered himself as its alternative.
“Our country is going in the wrong direction. We can see it and we can feel it,” DeSantis told about 500 people in an evangelical Christian church auditorium in suburban Des Moines plastered with red, white and blue signs proclaiming a “Great American Comeback”.
Hundreds more watched from an overflow room.
While DeSantis jabbed at Trump indirectly during his hour-long speech, he pointedly critiqued the former president while talking to reporters and a small audience afterward.
DeSantis lashed out at Trump’s suggestion that New York’s pandemic response was better than Florida’s, calling it “detached from reality”.
“That criticism is ridiculous,” DeSantis said. “But it is an indication that the former president would double down on his lockdowns.”
Stepping back, DeSantis also noted that he never attacked Trump publicly while the latter was president.
“When we disagreed, I never bashed him publicly because he was taking all this incoming from the media, the left, and even some Republicans. And the whole collusion was a total farce. And he was treated very, very poorly. And that bothered me, and it still bothers me to be honest.
“So, I never really would air those disagreements,” DeSantis added.
“Well, now he’s attacking me over some of these disagreements, but I think he’s doing it in a way that the voters are going to side with me.”
Trump, who was already scheduled to be in Iowa today, added a couple of stops in the state to his schedule for Wednesday, ensuring he would overlap with the Florida governor for a time.
He will tape a radio appearance in Des Moines before attending a GOP legislative dinner.
DeSantis’ appearance came six days after a stumbling online announcement that raised questions about his readiness for the national stage.
Beyond the glitchy launch, DeSantis opens his campaign looking up at Trump in the polls amid persistent questions about the Florida governor’s ability to connect with voters in person.
The Tuesday evening stop at Eternity Church in Clive was a conspicuous nod to the evangelical Christians who wield outsize sway in Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses.
He met with a handful of influential evangelical pastors before the suburban event, as he has during previous Iowa visits.
But the church event was an opportunity to meet the newly declared candidate just as he has been stepping up his criticism of Trump, who maintains a base of support in Iowa and remains the heavy favourite eight months before the first votes are cast.
That a 500 year leasehold was signed with a private developer in 1997, says a lot about the sad state of public planning in the city.
That’s a good news story to go to bed with. Good on Lord iveagh
@Niamh Hand: where was he the last 20 years?
@steve white: 20 years ago a still recent lease agreement was in effect, so he was as powerless to intervene as the rest of us.
@steve white: dope
@steve white: drinking pints I’d assume
Hands up if you agree that Alan Kelly is an eejit
@the-baldie-lad: utd fan out in the open was it Leo on the luas
Excellent news.
Be nice to have something along the lines of the English market in Cork
Hopefully, he won’t grant another lease to DCC so they can balls it up again!
My dad had a butchers shop there for years.
A market like the ones in Barcelona would be the job there..
Should be sequestered by the state along with all lands and properties that were divided amongst the lords of the English elite!
@D Cullen: That’d be great if the state were capable of managing the lands and properties. Read the article and you will understand that the State is not up to the job.
@D Cullen: so the state can then sell it on the ruthless developers and give themselves pay raises??
No thank, at least Lord Iveagh will do something that benefits the people of Dublin, like he has done many times in the past.
@D Cullen: except the Guinness’s are Anglo-Irish not English, just like many of Ireland’s rebel leaders of the past, Pearse / Wolfe Tone etc. The first Lord Iveagh was born is Dublin and is known for providing housing for the poor etc.
His Christian/First name is very odd, don’t you think – ‘Lord’ ??
have your say