Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis defended U.S. Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas in the face of criticism for allegedly improperly receiving gifts.
In April, ProPublica reported that Thomas failed to declare free trips from billionaire donor Harlan Crow.
Earlier this week, Alito preempted a similar article about his relationship with billionaire Paul Singer with a column in The Wall Street Journal. The justice said charges that he failed to take proper steps regarding cases connected to a billionaire's hedge fund and failed to list certain items on his financial disclosure were not "valid."
DeSantis, who is vying for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, mentioned both justices during a speech Friday at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, D.C.
"As president, I will appoint and nominate justices to the Supreme Court in the mold of Justices Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito," DeSantis said.
"We will also stand and defend them against scurrilous attacks that you're seeing in the media and by left-wing groups. The left knows that they have lost control of the court, and they don't like it."
DeSantis warned conference attendees of the consequences if Democrats win control of Congress and the presidency in 2024.
"If they're able to sweep in '24, they're going to pack the U.S. Supreme Court with liberal justices," DeSantis said. "You may have 13 people on the Supreme Court after they get done with it, and they will install a liberal majority.
"So they're hard at this effort of trying to lay the groundwork for that by delegitimizing our great conservative justices. And let me just say: I stand with Justice Thomas; I stand with Justice Alito in the face of these attacks. They are wrong."
Earlier this month, DeSantis said that former President Donald Trump's nominees to the Supreme Court — Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — had not met the conservative standard set by Alito and Thomas.
"None of those three are at the same level of Justices Thomas and Justice Alito," DeSantis said.
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