Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is urging Iowa Republicans to be wary because he doubts Joe Biden will be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
DeSantis, who spoke yesterday at a luncheon for Iowa delegates at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, said “the knives are out” for Biden.
“The entire media that’s trying to push Biden out, they’re doing that for a reason,” DeSantis said. “They’re not doing it to help Trump. They’re doing it to beat Trump because they think they need a different candidate to do it.”
DeSantis told the Iowa delegates it would be rare for someone in Biden’s position to step aside — and a Biden versus Trump rematch would turn out well for Republicans. “But I think we need to prepare that something can happen,” DeSantis said, “and something probably will.”
DeSantis was the second place finisher in the Iowa GOP’s Caucuses in January. There’s speculation he’ll run again for president in 2028.
U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak who spoke to the Iowa RNC delegates, too, said next month’s Democratic National Convention will be a spectacle.
“Get the popcorn ready because this is going to be the most hilarious exercise that we have ever seen,” Ernst said. “For well over a year now when I am meeting with national political figure, when I a meeting with Iowans, I’ve been saying: ‘I’m a conspiracy theorist. I don’t think President Biden is going to be the nominee,’ Well, now that’s kind of coming to fruition.”
Ernst cited an Associated Press poll that found nearly two-thirds of Democrats do not want Biden as their 2024 nominee.
“While I don’t want to say we’re going to waltz into the White House with Donald J. Trump this fall — we can’t take it for granted, I don’t want you to take it for granted — but I can tell you with the enthusiasm and the excitement that we have felt during this convention and what we will feel leading up to the election, we are going to sweep this election,” Ernst said.
The “tide is turning” in key U.S. Senate races, according to Ernst, and she said there are “tremendous” odds Republicans will win a majority of seats in the Senate this fall. Ernst won election to a second term in the senate in 2020 and plans to seek a third term in 2026. She did not endorse a presidential candidate before the 2024 Iowa Caucuses, but publicly endorsed Trump after “Super Tuesday” primary results showed Trump had won enough support to be the party’s 2024 nominee.
