DES MOINES, Iowa — Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) criticized Hunter Biden for his foreign business dealings days after the first son’s federal tax and gun crime plea deal fell apart in court.
“My son is only 5 years old, so he’s not going to be lining his pockets with money from foreign governments,” DeSantis said Friday during the Iowa Republican Party’s Lincoln Day dinner in Des Moines.
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DeSantis’s border and public health policies received a boisterous response from the audience, as did his anti-government weaponization position.
“You don’t coddle bureaucrats like Dr. [Anthony] Fauci,” he said of the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director. “You bring them in and say, ‘You are fired.'”
Earlier Friday, DeSantis distanced himself from former President Donald Trump‘s legal problems and defended himself from criticism regarding the Florida Board of Education’s new black teaching standards, changed to align school curricula with his Stop WOKE Act.
“When they’re shooting at you, the way you handle it is not shoot yourself in the foot and then make sure you keep the eye on the ball,” he said after a small business stop in Albia. “So that is what we’re gonna do: eye on the ball, focused on the mission, deliver results for the American people.”
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The Lincoln Day Dinner is a critical opportunity for 2024 Republican primary presidential candidates to differentiate themselves from a crowded field before next January’s first-in-the-nation caucuses.
Trump has an average of 52% support, DeSantis has 18%, biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Vice President Mike Pence has 5%, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has 4%, and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) has 3%, according to RealClearPolitics.
