DeSantis charms Rochester crowd, promises to send Biden back to his basement

Presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis gestures as he makes a point during Thursday's stump speech at the Rochester American Legion. (Rochester Voice photos)

Saying he brought some Florida heat with him, Republican presidential hopeful and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday fired off a scorching attack on President Joe Biden, saying that from the border to energy to the appalling withdrawal from Afghanistan, he has failed the American people at every turn.
Speaking in one of the Rochester American Legion function hall, DeSantis promised to send Biden back to his basement where he belongs, prompting a huge cheer from the couple of hundred in attendance.

A Rochester American Legion function hall was packed on Thursday with about 200 in attendance as well as a full contingent of national press and TV networks on hand.

He also said the Democrats were trying to cancel New Hampshire's first in the nation primary but it won't work.
"It's all about politics," he said. "We will be in New Hampshire campaigning for your vote all the way."
Like fellow presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy who spoke in Rochester several weeks ago, DeSantis put "woke" culture in the crosshairs.
"Florida is where woke comes to die," he said vowing he would eliminate the progressive cudgel on every level, "from the classroom to the boardroom."
DeSantis also took aim at the federal government's bloated bureaucracy and told a story about his first brush with its overreach.
"My first full-time job was, I think I was 18. I was an assistant for an electrician in an electrical company," he said. "I actually learned something about government on that one because I showed up to work the first day. "I'm all decked out (in) what I thought was like good electrical garb. And they looked at me and they started looking to see, you know, they were inspecting my boots and I didn't know what they were doing.
"They're like, 'We don't know if your boots are OSHA approved or not. We can't let you work if they're not.'"
So he was forced to go out and buy an expensive pair of OSHA-approved boots.
"And so I had to go buy a new pair and it cost me my entire first week's salary to buy boots that I didn't really need. So what it taught me was, you know, government was imposing something. I don't think it made me any safer," DeSantis said. "It did make me a little bit poorer as a young kid trying to get by."
Matt Mower of Brunswick, Maine, drove an hour and a half and then waited in line for two hours to see DeSantis.
Mower thinks DeSantis can beat Trump and Biden.
He voted for Trump twice, but said he's jumping ship for DeSantis.
"DeSantis has an accomplished record, but he doesn't say silly things like Trump."
Joe Bryon of Windham also thinks DeSantis can beat Trump in the primary, but since their policy stances are very similar, "DeSantis will have to carve out two or three policies on which he differs and really hammer them," he said.
Karen Donovan of Swampscott, Mass., said she's a solid Trump voter, but she came to hear what DeSantis had to say.
"We can't have another four years with a Democrat in the White House, she said. "If DeSantis wins the nomination, I will definitely vote for him."
DeSantis' visit came with heavy security including searches of pocketbooks and knapsacks and screening by a metal detector.