CORAL GABLES, Fla – In a one-on-one interview with Local 10 News Monday, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who had just announced his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential primary, spoke about his campaign for the White House as well as the recent local scrutiny of his businesses. externally with a real estate developer.
He also discussed an old family feud with a fellow Republican from Miami-Dade.
Local 10 News reporter Christina Vázquez spoke with the mayor at his new campaign office in Coral Gables.
A “risky” candidacy
Suárez, 45, is the third Florida resident but the first and only Hispanic to vote in the 2024 presidential election. Politico calls him an “outpost” in the primaries against former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis, two men he’s dated at times he’s at odds with; Suárez said he did not vote for Trump in either 2016 or 2020.
“You’re man number three from Florida, the other two are considered top contenders,” Vázquez asked. “You did not vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020, and we know you disagree with the governor on some policy issues. Do you think that courting the Republican Party base will hurt you?”
“I don’t think so because the contrast is clear and I think what voters have to decide is whether they want someone to tell them what they are for or whether they want someone to tell them what they are for ‘ said Suarez.
Suárez believes his qualities set him apart from DeSantis, Trump and the other candidates and said he would not enter the race unless he thought he had a chance.
“I think that in the Republican Party right now, the former president has the dominant position, obviously he has almost 70% and then there’s everyone else,” Suárez told Vázquez. “I like to say I’d rather be unknown and exciting than known and unexciting.”
“Being exciting is because you are a breath of fresh air. They’re Hispanic, there’s no Hispanic on either the Republican or Democratic side, which I think can expand the party,” he added. you are young The Republican Party lost 26 points to young voters under 30. You come from a city. Cities are usually blue. We changed that in Miami-Dade County.”
Suárez, whose role as Miami mayor is largely ceremonial, has championed the idea of attracting venture capitalists and tech entrepreneurs to Miami and has also promoted cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. The city has become a hub for venture capital investments. The Financial Times also named Miami “America’s Most Important City” in 2022.
His campaign slogan is “It’s time we got started.”
“The ‘we’ is the American people and what we are starting is a new conversation,” Suárez Vázquez said.
Suárez, Miami Mayor since 2017, was asked if he was trying to appeal to moderate or conservative conservatives.
“My goal is to be radically different, to look different, to sound different, to have a different vision that’s totally positive and focused on American prosperity,” he said.
Suárez is aiming to be the first sitting mayor to be elected to the country’s highest office. Most of all, he would like to deal with immigration and the deficit and take action against China, he said.
a long feud
One prominent South Florida Republican strongly disagrees with Suárez’s candidacy: US Rep. Carlos Giménez. The former Miami-Dade County mayor called Suarez a “complete fraudster” in a recent interview on Fox News.
It all stems from a decades-long, well-documented feud with Gimenez’s political rival, Francis Suarez’s father, Xavier, who was Miami’s first Cuban-American mayor and county commissioner during Gimenez’s tenure as mayor.
Suárez commented on Giménez’s comments:
Vázquez: (He) is telling the national public that you’re a fraud and that you don’t have the necessary experience, partly because the mayor’s role here is ceremonial in nature, partly because the community here is small in relation to the size of the population. .
Suárez: First of all, it’s personal, obviously he’s had a personal problem with me for a long time. As for the other argument, being a young mayor, it’s a reasonable argument, but I’m the only candidate to have cut a budget by 20%, and the value required for that doesn’t depend on the number of zeros, we need to cut the federal budget by 20%. Which of all the candidates has built a resilient economic ecosystem that’s #1 in wage growth, the lowest job in America, and #1 in tech job growth? I’m the only one who did it.
Francis Suarez
Suárez: “The FBI has not contacted me” regarding payments to promoters
Locally, Suárez is accused of using his influence to help a property developer implement his real estate project.
The Miami Herald first reported that Suárez received payments to support URBIN, a multi-million dollar mixed-use project at Commodore Plaza in Coconut Grove. The newspaper later reported that the FBI was investigating the matter.
SEE: Suárez responds to alleged FBI investigation into his ties to a real estate developer
After belittling Suárez, Giménez referred to the alleged investigation.
“He’s currently under investigation by the FBI for working outside of a promoter’s organization,” Gimenez said on Fox News last week.
Vázquez asked Suárez to respond to Giménez’s comment, citing two related court filings.
Vázquez: Do you know anything about an FBI investigation?
Suárez: No, the FBI did not contact me. He (Giménez) might know something I don’t know.
Vázquez: Let’s take what we know from the court records. We have a court filing showing you were paid $10,000 a month from a real estate developer. We have a court record where it is a written counseling agreement that has been reviewed and approved by the prosecutor. One simple question: did this promoter make you $10,000 a month?
Suárez: What I said is that I can have outside income. I have never used my public office for the benefit of any private individual and never will. That didn’t happen. I myself have contacted the Ethics Committee, the only agency that has stated on record that it is investigating the matter in order to provide transparency and resolve the issue quickly. They are distractions.
Christina: Giving you the opportunity to address what you know is the theme of all of this – criticism – so let’s start again with the simple question – yes or no, was it $10,000 a month? We see that in the court record.
Suarez: Yes, yes.
Christina: $10,000 a month, so what was the scope of the job? What did they pay you for with that money?
Suárez: I helped a company raise money and grow as a company. It had nothing to do with my responsibilities as mayor of Miami.
Christina: So when you hear this conclusion, this accusation that this developer had businesses all over town and that the $10,000 a month that you were getting was to buy influence, it’s essentially an accusation that it it was bribery…
Suarez: It’s wrong. I think it’s wrong. I know it’s wrong This particular developer hadn’t submitted any zoning applications to the city, it could be that he was doing some administrative work that he was doing without my knowledge, so I’ve said that from day one and that’s why I can honestly say I’m not involved .
Both Suárez and promoter Rishi Kapoor have denied any wrongdoing.
“(The) mayor can have outside income/jobs. “If a person employing the mayor has an item on the commission’s agenda that requires action by the mayor, the mayor has an obligation to retire,” City Attorney Victoria Méndez said in a statement. “We have found no case where the company in question or its subsidiary appeared before the commission or required the mayor’s intervention.”
The FBI told Local 10 News that it “neither confirms nor denies the existence of an investigation, except in rare cases where public assistance is requested.”
Miami-Dade prosecutors said they are working closely with the Miami-Dade Ethics and Public Trust Commission to investigate Suarez’s actions.
“We will coordinate our investigation of the allegations with them. “At this early stage, it is premature for us to decide on the allegations,” said an SAO spokesman.
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