GOP Candidate Taken Aback At Iowa Speech When Someone Claps For Fentanyl Deaths

Republican Presidential candidate and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez was taken aback when a lone member of the crowd clapped for a reference to tens of thouosands of fentanyl deaths.

Suarez delivered a speech Friday night at the 2023 Lincoln Dinner hosted by the Republican Party of Iowa Des Moines, where many other candidates —  including fellow Floridians Governor Ron DeSantis and ex-President Donald Trump — were on the bill.

One odd moment came as Suarez talked about the fentanyl crisis, and was moved to remark on one audience member’s ill-timed clap:

1 Can you believe that? It’s shocking to the conscience, but it is something that is happening every single day. In addition, we’re losing 80 to 90,000 Americans to fentanyl that’s being pumped in by China through our southern border.

(AUDIENCE MEMBER CLAPS).

I mean, you can clap for that. I don’t want that to happen! so we’re not going to clap for that!

But that is half the population of the Dublin that’s dying on an annual basis. That is a 747 crashing every single day. Are we treating it like that kind of national crisis? Are we? No, we’re not. And so we continue to fumble around.

Suarez’s biggest splash to date came when he was caught off guard by radio host Hugh Hewitt in this now-infamous exchange:

Hugh Hewitt: Will you be talking about the Uyghurs in your campaign?

Suarez: What’s a Uyghur? … What did you call it, “a Weeble?”

Suarez later explained he simply wasn’t used to the pronmunciation everyone else uses:

Of course, I am well aware of the suffering of the Uyghurs in China. They are being enslaved because of their faith. China has a deplorable record on human rights and all people of faith suffer there.

I didn’t recognize the pronunciation my friend Hugh Hewitt used. That’s on me.

Watch above via C-SPAN.