Parade of who’s who in the Florida GOP poured praise on ex POTUS
What a difference six years makes.
In 2016, when both Sen. Marco Rubio and a businessman named Donald Trump were competing for the Republican nomination for president, they called each other names and hurled insults at one another.
“Little Marco,” as Trump used to say, “can’t be elected dog-catcher in Florida.”
Trump was an unstable “con artist,” said Rubio, who mocked his hair, his “tiny hands” and his unnatural and shiny orange glow.
On Sunday, the two showed they buried any hatchets when they appeared on stage together at a get-out-the-vote rally for Rubio two days before Election Day.
“You need Marco Rubio fighting for you in the U.S. Senate. He is fantastic,” Trump said to the crowd at the Miami-Dade Fair Expo grounds, calling him a “great friend” during a 90-minute speech that was mostly about himself taking the White House back n 2024.
“Marco, come on up.”
And there Marquito went, as ordered, up on stage to share the space and some laughs with the man he once said was a danger to the Republican Party.
¡Que hipocrita!
Of course it’s not the first time. Rubio held a pro-Trump rally two years ago during the presidential race. His defenders might say that he’s a pragmatist, strategic even — someone who can look the other way and give a second chance when it serves his cause. After all, Trump has had a pretty good record with his mid-term endorsements so far.
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“Mr. President, I think Miami-Dade County likes you a lot. I think they love you a lot,” he said when he first went up. What a kiss ass.
Ladra calls it opportunism. It also hurts his credibility. Like, how can we believe anything he says about anybody now?
Trump, too, is trying to build new allies in Florida now that Gov. Ron DeSantis is his biggest threat to the 2024 nomination. Notice how DeSantis was not invited to the rally on Sunday and had to have his own little rally someplace else.
So who are Trump’s new Florida friends? The Republicans who were invited to the rally, most of whom spoke at the event, which can be watched on C-Span’s website, included Sen. Rick Scott, Congress Members Carlos Gimenez — who Trump must have forgotten endorsed Hillary Clinton — and Mario Diaz Balart, Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo — who introduced himself as the mayor of the Free City of Hialeah — Senate President Wilton Simpson, who is running for agriculture commissioner, State Rep. Matt Gaetz and State Rep. and future Speaker Daniel Perez, who noted the surge of Republican registrations since 2020.
What happened to all our local Republican women? This was definitely a boy’s party.
Gimenez said the expected red wave was going to be a “red tsunami.
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“And it’s going to rise from the Florida Straits and it’s going to go right over the keys, go over the state of Florida and sweep the rest of the nation,” Gimenez said. “Because America is going to say no to inflation, America is going to say no to crazy energy policies, America is going to say no to open borders, America is going to say no to teaching our children crazy stuff.”
Miami-Dade Commission Candidate Kevin Marino Cabrera — a former Trump campaign staffer who was already endorsed by The Donald — led the crowd in the pledge of allegiance. First he asked the crowd “who here is ready to vote on Tuesday, to drain the swamp, not only in Washington but here in Miami-Dade County and save our country.”
It gave the 305 Republicans an opportunity to kiss some Trump butt and at times sounded more like a campaign event for the former president than a rally for Rubio, who is in the race of his life against Congresswoman Val Demings, a former Orlando chief of police.
In speeches between songs on a really great playlist by TrendyBeats.com, the speakers dug at Hunter Biden and Nancy Pelosi, brought up gender identity, bashed President Joe Biden and praised the former POTUS while the audience chanted slogans like “Lock her up.”
Um, wasn’t that two races ago?
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“Miami-Dade County, this is Trump Country,” Perez said. “There are many elected officials you will hear today and many influential people in the movement towards conservatism in our own backyard. But there is absolutely nobody that deserves more credit, that actually believed in us, invested his time in us, invested his policies in and turned this county red than Donald J. Trump.”
Donald Trump Jr. also took the stage to talk about how terrible the Democrats are and how he moved his son to Florida from New York because they love grandpa there.
But the praise from his son and the GOP establishment was expected. It was Rubio’s complete 180-degree turn that made this rally a perfect example of how politics make for strange bedfellows.
And also of how Rubio is just an opportunist who won’t stand by his word.
Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio, together again, as friends not foes added by Ladra on
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