DeSantis, Trump seem at similar Iowa GOP occasion, each blast Biden

GOP presidential main rivals Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis appeared for the primary time on the similar 2024 marketing campaign occasion Friday, with every taking a break from dealing blows at each other to blast President Joe Biden.

The feuding Republicans briefly spoke at Iowa GOP’s annual Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines, together with 11 different hopefuls vying for the presidential ticket.

DeSantis wasted no time highlighting Biden’s latest troubles upon reaching the rostrum.

“Are you able to ship Joe Biden again to his basement in Delaware on a everlasting trip?” the Florida governor stated on the prime of his 10-minute speech.

“I can promise you this: in my White Home, there can be no cocaine allowed in the White House. And look, my son’s solely 5 years previous so he’s not gonna be lining his pockets with money from foreign governments. So don’t fear about that.”

DeSantis touted his success in Florida, which he identified often flew within the face of insurance policies Democrats had been pushing nationally — together with his pledge to “rip the politics out” of the army and to struggle in opposition to important race principle in faculties.

He additionally slammed Vice President Kamala Harris for perpetrating “phony narratives” that the Sunshine State’s new middle school black history curriculum consists of classes “that enslaved individuals benefited from slavery” throughout a go to final week.

The governor ended his speech the identical means it began — with a dig at Biden, who he known as the “custodian” of America’s decline.

“I imagine that decline is a alternative I imagine success is attainable. And I do know that freedom is value preventing for. That is our probability in 2024 to ship the Biden-Harris administration to the dustbin of historical past the place it belongs,” he stated earlier than receiving a standing ovation.

Trump, who was the ultimate speaker of the evening, additionally spent a beneficiant portion of his speech accusing Biden of rigging the 2020 election, “mutilating” individuals’s our bodies in assist of transgender rights and siccing the Justice Division on him over his classified records indictments.

The previous president brushed apart the newest accusations that he ordered a staffer to destroy proof of his wrongdoing — even after opponent Former U.S. Rep. Will Hurd claimed earlier within the evening that Trump is simply operating for president “to remain out of jail”

Trump additionally pointed to Biden’s disastrous evacuation of American troopers in Afghanistan, calling it the “most embarrassing second within the historical past of our nation.”

“And due to that, I imagine that was the motivation for Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine when he noticed the incompetence of our army and our management greater than the rest. The entire Afghanistan mess, what a disgrace it was,” Trump stated.

“We’ll crush crooked Joe Biden essentially the most crooked president within the historical past of our nation by far and likewise grossly incompetent. Doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s destroying our nation.”

Trump — who is just not sometimes shy of taking pictures in opposition to his Republican contenders — barely made any digs in opposition to DeSantis besides to brag about crushing him in the polls.

The duo has been largely pitted in opposition to each other within the leadup to DeSantis’ marketing campaign announcement.

Although the Florida governor not often responds to Trump’s low blows, the previous president routinely slams “DeSanctimonious” as an insignificant opponent for the Republican nomination.

Despite the dangerous blood, DeSantis has supported Trump as each the Justice Division and Manhattan District Legal professional’s Workplace charged him in separate indictments this yr, claiming each are political strikes made by Democrats in an effort to stifle the Republican chief.