Florida – Florida Senator Marco Rubio has joined the chorus of Republicans criticizing President Biden’s executive order to restrict asylum at the southern border. Rubio dismissed the plan as a “joke” and argued that it would not significantly reduce the number of illegal border crossings, even if fully implemented.
“Biden’s new border ‘plan’ is a joke,” Rubio said in a post on the social media platform X. “Even if Biden actually enforced it fully (which he won’t), it would still allow close to a million people a year to cross illegally ON TOP OF the 10 million he has already allowed in over the last 3 years.”
Rubio further emphasized his point by sharing a post by Bill Melugin, a California-based national correspondent for Fox News, which detailed why Biden’s executive order should not be described as “shutting down” the border.
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DeSantis Joins the Fray
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has echoed similar sentiments, taking a harsh stance against President Biden’s handling of various issues, including border management and economic policies. During an appearance on Fox News’s “Life, Liberty, and Levin,” DeSantis referred to President Biden as “a serial liar” and criticized his approach to the border crisis.
“Well, you have two things. One is — you’re right, Mark — this guy is a serial liar!” DeSantis exclaimed. “On all host of issues, on the border, on the student loans, on even minor things, that he’s constantly doing it! The difference is when Donald Trump was president, if he’d said something with a comma out of place, you’d have, like, 10, quote, unquote, fact-checkers from corporate media organizations trying to say, ‘Oh, that’s not true,’ and they would do all this and spin all this up. With Biden, these guys have gone on a three-and-a-half-year vacation! They basically let him do all this stuff — very rarely, he’s held accountable, oftentimes in an indirect way, usually with just friendly fire.”
DeSantis also criticized Biden for ignoring the Supreme Court’s ruling last year, which decided that the president cannot cancel student loans. Despite this, Biden has gone ahead and canceled loans for over 5 million people.
Economic Concerns
The Florida governor did not stop at the border issue. He also addressed the current cost of living, accusing Biden of being “100%” at war with the middle class in the United States. DeSantis argued that Biden’s “unprecedented spending spree” since taking office has led to massive inflation across the country.
“And then, of course, if you just look at his overall approach to energy policy, he is putting climate ideology over bread-and-butter economics for the American people,” DeSantis added. “He wants you to pay more for gas, he wants you to pay more for electricity, and he wants you to pay more for automobiles. Mark, most people don’t want an electric vehicle, but most people can’t afford an electric vehicle, and yet he wants to plunge us in that area. So it’s been a frontal assault on the middle class, on working people all in service of this really bankrupt, left-wing ideology.”
Political Implications
DeSantis previously ran for president in the 2024 GOP primary but bowed out of the race in January, endorsing former President Donald Trump. He has also condemned the recent ruling on Trump in the former president’s hush money trial, arguing that the trial would never have been brought if Trump had not been the person on trial.
In the first 2024 election poll since Trump’s verdict, the former president received 50% of support compared to 45% for Biden in a hypothetical matchup between the two. Biden led Trump 47% to 39% in Nevada in a January 2020 poll, a state he previously lost in 2016 and 2020, according to Fox News.
The upcoming election promises to be a heated battle as both sides gear up for a contentious campaign season. With Florida playing a critical role, the actions and statements of prominent figures like DeSantis and Rubio will undoubtedly shape the political landscape. As DeSantis continues to rally against Biden’s policies, the impact of these criticisms on voters remains to be seen, especially in key battleground states. The road to the 2024 presidential election is fraught with challenges, and the actions taken now will have lasting effects on the future of American politics.
