Miami Mayor Francis Suarez skeptical of Trump indictment, calling it ‘slippery slope’
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Miami Mayor Francis Suarez questions “the expenditure of judicial resources” on the indictment of former President Donald Trump in New York City criminal court.
Suarez, who may run against Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said in an interview Thursday that the indictment does not impact the likelihood of his own White House bid. Multiple polls show Trump leading the Republican field, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis many points behind. Suarez is at the bottom in polls where his name is mentioned.
Suarez, who has traveled to Iowa and South Carolina in recent weeks, said Trump’s legal troubles are not a “major factor” in his thinking. The mayor then expressed skepticism of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s decision to prosecute Trump.
“I think that whether you like the former president or don’t like the former president, it is a slippery slope,” Suarez said.
Suarez referenced the multiple investigations of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing politician who lost his reelection bid in 2022, while suggesting investigations of political figures seemed “to be all aimed in one particular direction ideologically.”
“So that’s a concern. That’s not who we are,” Suarez said.
The mayor compared the focus on Trump’s past behavior in the criminal charges to Trump’s own denial of the 2020 presidential election results.
“Frankly, if you think about it, people criticize the former president a lot about focusing on past election results, etc.,” Suarez said. “But this is also focused on the past, you know. We’ve got to move forward.”
Suarez: Let the ballot box decide
Criminal charges inherently focus on past behavior. In Trump’s case, he is accused of falsifying business records, charges stemming from the payment of hush money to a porn actress at the height of the 2016 campaign to prevent her from going public about their alleged sexual encounter.
Suarez said he thought “people should win and lose at the ballot box.”
“If you don’t like someone’s policies, or if you don’t like someone’s personality. That’s OK. Exercise your right to vote. Use the democratic process to express it,” Suarez said. “And I actually think that’s a way bigger statement about what this country is and what this country should be than going after somebody prosecutorially.”
Suarez’s comments echoed Trump’s rhetoric when he spoke at Mar-a Lago on Tuesday evening after his arraignment in New York.
“This is where we are as a nation,” Trump said. “Who would have thought? They can’t beat us at the ballot box, so they try and beat us through the law.”
Read more: Miami mayor visits SC as he mulls 2024 run, sees void in ‘generational leadership’
Visiting with voters
Suarez said in his visits to early primary states, he has not heard voters talk much about “drama” that is being discussed at the national level.
“They’re talking about their groceries. They’re talking about gas prices. They’re talking about their concern over foreign policy, and where is this Russia/Ukraine situation. How is it going to impact them? You know, that’s what their concerns are,” Suarez said.
Suarez and Trump have not always seen eye to eye. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Suarez publicly said if Trump had COVID, he should not come to Miami for a debate with Joe Biden, then a presidential candidate.
“I don’t think it’s safe, not for him and anybody else, anywhere or anyone he interacts with,” Suarez told POLITICO.
Suarez was one of the first prominent elected officials in the country to contract COVID in mid-March 2020 after Bolsonaro visited Miami. A member of Bolsonaro’s staff tested positive upon returning to Brazil, Suarez quarantined himself and soon after tested positive.
