Speaker 1: We start today with another chaos element, in fact, thrown into the 2024 Republican
primary race. The mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, a Republican, announced this morning that he
is running for president. He's challenging, of course, Donald Trump, the presumptive frontrunner
in that 2024 Republican race, but also Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. SUAREZ If we say that Trump
is a Floridian now, which I guess he is, you know, he famously changed his residency to Florida.
Suarez becomes the third current or former Florida elected official. Floridian elected official,
I think better said to enter the race. And this is going to be interesting for a couple of different
reasons. One is that Suarez is Hispanic and there is increasingly a focus on Hispanic voters,
the right talking about Hispanic voters as sort of like don't assume that they're just
going to vote for Democrats, which is true, as I talked about before, although Hispanic
voters lean left significantly, not quite as much as black Americans and Jewish Americans,
but Hispanic Americans do lean left Cubans and Venezuelans are often the exempt exception to
that. And we are talking about Florida. So could this be maybe a path for Suarez to gain some
traction in the state of Florida specifically? That's number one. Number two, there is, I think,
a good argument to be made that suarez is more of a moderate. He has some corruption issues, but on
a number of different policy areas, he's a little more of a moderate, sort of like a technocrat,
has expressed support for cryptocurrencies and the like. So I'm is curious, is anybody else to see if
and how this impacts the race? Let's listen to him this morning on Good Morning America.
Oh no. The clip glitching badly. I'm confident I'm going to get it fixed for us,
though. Let's take a listen here. Speaker 2: Good morning, George. It's
wonderful to be with you and Good Morning America. Why are you running for president?
I'm running for president because I think I have a different message than what other candidates
have. I'm generational and not generational as a buzzword, but as someone who has implemented
generational change to create prosperity in this city. I'm someone who was a president
of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. So I know the problem that 85% of Americans
who live in cities and 91% who constitute the GDP of this country are going through.
Speaker 1: So this is sounding very focused groupie and not like I mean,
this is not going to appeal to anyone. Speaker 2: Things like increasing crime,
homelessness, mental health issues. I'm someone who has a positive track record of success and
has a positive vision for the future. I think what I've noticed in the last 24 hours is an outpouring
of support because people want someone who can unify them. I was elected by 85% and reelected by
80%. And as I've traveled the United States from states like Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina,
Nevada. What people want is someone to bring them together. They want to know more. They want
to hear more about my track record, about what I've accomplished and what I could do for them
and their children. This isn't about me. This isn't about my generation. This is about her.
Speaker 1: Okay. So we'll see if that message does appeal to anybody. The Miami Herald with
an interesting report and some notes about Suarez, which we'll put up on the screen right
now for you. It says that his brand was recently tarnished. Sources told the Herald that Suarez
faces scrutiny by the FBI and local authorities for $10,000 a month payments he received from a
developer for consulting work while serving as mayor, which is extraordinarily shady that small
potatoes compared to Trump's legal problems, they write. But those fees look like a conflict
of interest. Much as mounting a longshot yet, BuzzFeed to run for president in 2020 landed
Democrat booted judge a job as US Secretary of Transportation. Suarez, too, might wind up with
a plum political appointment out of this contest or running another office later. In other words,
he could win without actually winning. And lastly, going on to say if he raises enough money
and gets a couple of viral soundbites at a presidential debate, Suarez might line up his
next job, perhaps as someone's V.P. or as a paid political commentator or top political consultant.
He's energetic, Hispanic, fluent in Spanish, appealing to the type of voters the Republican
Party has invested significant resources to attract. As mayor, he's been criticized for
focusing too much on shiny baubles and less on the unglamorous job of leading Miami-Dade County's
largest city. But those qualities might play well in another role. So The Miami Herald, which has
followed Suarez very closely, says this is not. Not only is there no chance, this is not even
really about running for president. This is about lining himself up for some future role VP. Who on
earth knows? What will be interesting to see is whether Suarez can make it to the debate stage.
The RNC, just under two weeks ago released its requirements for making it to the first debate in
late August. And I don't have them right in front of me, but they are something along the lines of
a fundraising requirement, I think because you have to raise money from at least 40,000
different people and you've got to be polling at least 1% in, I believe, three different national
polls. Suarez can certainly get himself to 1%, and I'm more interested in what his presence on the
stage could do as a Florida elected official, in contrast to Ron DeSantis. You may have two
voices Trump and Suarez attacking DeSantis record at four as Florida governor. That would
be interesting. It will also be interesting to see what attacks DeSantis mounts against Suarez.
My guess is Trump will mostly ignore suarez if they're on the stage together and instead just
attack desantis. So that will be an interesting dynamic. In the meantime, we are going to get a
republican polling update tomorrow, but let's talk about a chris Christie appearance on fox News.