Suarez criticizes DeSantis’ handling of slavery curriculum, addresses Trump indictments

In a sit-down interview with ABC News, Miami mayor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Francis Suarez took repeated goal at one of his celebration’s maximum distinguished White House hopefuls — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — whilst suggesting he noticed some issues of the prosecution of front-runner Donald Trump, who denies wrongdoing.

Among Suarez’s variations with DeSantis, the mayor informed ABC News Correspondent MaryAlice Parks, used to be the governor’s handling of Florida’s arguable new tutorial requirements on instructing Black historical past and a regulation that DeSantis signed remaining yr that restricts instruction on sexual orientation and gender identification in some Ok-12 study rooms.

The Black historical past curriculum, which used to be authorized unanimously by way of the state’s board of training remaining month, directs Florida educators to show heart faculty scholars that enslaved other folks “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

“I’ve been very vocal, very clear about the fact that there’s no virtues to slavery that should be taught in our school system,” Suarez stated within the interview, on the Iowa State Fair. “And by the way, that’s not a just Vice President Kamala Harris position,” he added, referencing Harris’ shuttle to Florida remaining month to rebuke the training requirements.

DeSantis has each defended the curriculum and distanced himself from the method of growing it.

“I wasn’t involved in it,” he stated in July. “But I think what they’re doing is, I think that they’re probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed being a blacksmith into doing things later in life. But the reality is, all of that is rooted in whatever is factual.”

“These were scholars that put that together. It was not anything that was done politically,” DeSantis stated then.

Dr. William Allen, one of the architects of the training usual, has additionally defended it as instructing about enslaved other folks’s resilience and resourcefulness.

Speaking with ABC News, Suarez contended that DeSantis had mishandled the problem.

“Most candidates feel that what the governor should have done is said, ‘Look, we made a mistake. We should not be sending this signal where we’re extolling the virtues of slavery under any circumstance,'” he stated. “It was a leadership opportunity. Unfortunately, he didn’t take it.”

Suarez additionally took factor with section of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education invoice, which DeSantis signed remaining yr and later authorized increasing. Critics have denounced it as “Don’t Say Gay” law as a result of of its restriction on instructing about sexual orientation and gender identification till 9th grade and simplest whether it is “appropriate” for college kids.

Suarez informed ABC News that whilst he helps such limits for college kids as much as the 3rd grade, he does now not imagine the law will have to lengthen to school scholars. Supporters of the regulation argue it prevents kids from being uncovered to subjects they to find unacceptable.

Suarez drew some other distinction with DeSantis, contending that DeSantis’ struggle with Disney after the corporate’s grievance of the Parental Rights in Education invoice had led DeSantis to pursue anti-business insurance policies that had been harming the state economic system.

DeSantis has denied politics is influencing the battle and stated he desires Disney to not have particular remedy relative to different companies. (Disney is ABC News’ mother or father corporate.)

The Miami mayor didn’t qualify for a place on Wednesday’s debate degree in Milwaukee.

He stated in a next remark, partially, “I respect the rules and process set forth by the [Republican National Committee], and I look forward to working with my party to ensure we win back the White House and restore the path to a brighter future for our country.”

On Trump’s 4 indictments

Suarez introduced his lengthy shot presidential marketing campaign simply days after former President Trump seemed in a Miami federal courtroom to be arraigned on fees that he allegedly mishandled govt secrets and techniques whilst out of administrative center. Trump has pleaded now not in charge.

Suarez informed ABC News that whilst the presence of labeled paperwork in Trump’s non-public place of abode after Trump left the White House “bothers” him, he believes the previous president by no means will have to had been in a position to take care of bodily copies of the paperwork within the first position, announcing he helps the use of virtual variations of labeled fabrics.

Suarez additionally famous that different officers had been discovered to have stored labeled paperwork after leaving administrative center, like former Vice President Mike Pence and President Joe Biden. (Neither Pence nor Biden is accused of refusing to go back the ones fabrics to the federal government, as Trump is.)

With appreciate to the fees Trump one by one faces in federal courtroom in Washington, referring to efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, Suarez seemed to solid doubt on the concept that Trump used to be conscious he misplaced the race, asking, “Have you ever heard him say that he knew he lost the election?”

Additionally, Suarez recommended that he and his fellow Republicans view the 4 federal indictments going through Trump — which additionally come with a New York case over hush cash Trump paid an grownup movie actress and a Georgia case over the rush to modify the 2020 election effects there — as a detriment to the country.

Trump maintains he did not anything incorrect and has pleaded now not in charge to all fees. He has now not but been arraigned in Georgia.

“I personally believe that there wasn’t enough evidence that I saw that the election should be overturned,” Suarez stated. “Having said that, I don’t think that these kinds of prosecutions are viewed by people in my party as something that is positive for the country.”

“The fact that every time he’s prosecuted, he surges in the polls, that should say something,” he added.

From mayor to president?

The function of Miami’s mayor is part-time. While Suarez can appoint the town supervisor and veto law, he lacks a vote at the town’s fee. (By distinction, the mayor of the mixed Miami-Dade County govt, which surrounds the town, is extra influential.)

Just three hundred and sixty five days into administrative center, Suarez sought to enlarge his powers, together with by way of giving himself authority over the town’s contracts, funds and public employees, however the “strong mayor” referendum in the end failed prior to citizens.

Asked whether or not his place as mayor has ready him for the presidency — a bounce that no different candidate has ever completed — Suarez likened his revel in to that of different govt positions.

“I’m the CEO of a billion-and-a-half-dollar company with 4,500 employees and four labor unions in a highly international city where I meet world leaders from this hemisphere and from across the world,” he stated.

If elected, Suarez would even be the primary Hispanic president. His coverage platform comprises supporting a federal 15-week abortion ban (with some exceptions) and lengthening safety sources alongside the U.S.-Mexico border, he informed ABC News.

“What we’ve seen in American politics in my lifetime is America often will choose an underdog,” he stated. “And so I think it’s an opportunity for Republicans in particular to elect not just a mayor, which is a problem solver, a unifier, but also a Hispanic who could deliver not just a win in ’24 but wins going forward.”

ABC News’ Hannah Demissie and Will McDuffie contributed to this record.