Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (R) said Sunday that former President Trump is only ahead in the polls because he dominates the news cycle.
“Well, he’s a wide lead because he dominates the conversation,” the mayor told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “And I think the press — and you know I don’t want to fault the press — but that’s all they want to talk about.”
“If we keep talking about the former president, frankly, I’m sure he’s sitting at home in Mar-a-Lago smiling and laughing because they’re giving him the nomination,” he added. “I think that we have to change the conversation in this country. We have to look at other options.”
Suarez launched his campaign for the White House shortly after former President Trump was arraigned at a federal court house in Miami on 37 federal charges of mishandling classified documents and attempts to keep them from the government. Suarez said on Sunday that Trump dominated some of the early questions posed to his campaign.
“The first question they asked me about was something related to the former president. I want to talk about why I’m uniquely positioned to run this country, why I have the skill set and the ability to bring this country together to create generational prosperity,” he said. “And I think that’s the big issue.”
Trump has maintained a comfortable lead in the polls even amid a litany of ongoing legal issues. A new Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll released last week said that 59 percent of Republican voters said they would vote for Trump if the GOP primary was held today, while 14 percent said the same about Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.