Garden Grove district on track with new sports facilities

• June 28, 2023

Santiago High soccer and football teams practiced Monday on a bright green field ringed by a vibrant orange track with pristine white lines.

The school hosted a celebration in the afternoon for its new athletic facilities before the athletes took the field.

The synthetic track now offers nine lanes with the new field at its center and new LED lighting.

“I am confident that this new facility will bring new excitement and energy to our outstanding athletic programs, which have dedicated coaches and hardworking players,” Garden Grove Unified School District Board President Walter Muneton said in a statement. He is an alum of Santiago High.

The athletic facilities were funded in part by a 2016 bond measure approved by voters that raised $311 million for projects at various campuses.

The district has similar facilities opening at its Rancho Alamitos High and Los Amigos High campuses by the end of July, spokeswoman Abby Broyles said. Each facility is costing about $8.5 million.

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​ Orange County Register 

Plans for new Metrolink stations in Boyle Heights and Pico Rivera press on

• June 28, 2023

In an effort to add ridership and get cars off the road, Metrolink trains may soon stop at two new stations in Los Angeles County — one at the Los Angeles General Medical Center in Boyle Heights and the other in Pico Rivera.

The stations are under study by LA Metro, the county transit agency that helps fund Metrolink, a heavy-rail passenger service that operates seven lines and 65 stations in Southern California.

LA Metro’s board voted on Thursday, June 22 to add $10 million to Metrolink’s regional rail program, which is exploring adding the stations.

The added stop at the L.A. County hospital campus would come off the San Bernardino Line, which has stops in Montclair, Pomona, Covina, Baldwin Park, El Monte, Cal State Los Angeles and downtown L.A.’s Union Station.

A rendering of the proposed Pico Rivera Metrolink station. (Image courtesy of Metro.)

A station in Pico Rivera would be served by two Metrolink train lines, the 91/Perris Valley line and the Orange County line. The station would be located between the Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs Station and the Commerce Station, said Scott Johnson, Metrolink spokesman. The 91/Perris Valley line and the San Bernardino line are the two busiest in the Metrolink system.

A $500,000 feasibility study looking at the L.A. County hospital stop was completed in 2022. The study concluded that adding a station would benefit more than 9,600 essential hospital workers and visitors.

The study also found that having a direct stop at the hospital campus would help decrease traffic on streets in Boyle Heights and provide a carless transit service to support new additions planned for what was once called the LAC+USC Medical Center. Plans include additional housing and a Restorative Care Village that provides residential treatment for mental health care, substance use disorders and other services. A first phase costing $68.5 million was completed in July 2022.

“We are rebranding and reimagining what we are doing there,” said Supervisor and LA Metro board member Hilda Solis, whose motion for a study of a Metrolink stop there was approved in 2021. “We have added restorative care and more housing there.

“The best way to get there — without having to drive and park — is to take Metrolink,” she said. “Metrolink (San Bernadino Line) helps connect people as far away as San Bernardino and Pomona, many who work at the General Hospital.”

In a survey taken by 1,500 employees at the regional hospital, 55% said they would use the train with the direct stop. Some employees take the line to Union Station, then take a county bus to the county hospital, Solis said.

“We do see professionals such as nurses, doctors and medical technicians who use the line. But this would cut down on the time of their commute,” she said.

Others who visit the hospital campus or come for a doctor’s appointment often have to take three or four buses to get there and it can take them three to four hours, Solis said.

Metro is moving ahead with preparing environmental documents that could pave the way for the new station to be built, according to Jay Fuhrman, Metro’s regional transportation planner and Deputy Executive Officer of Regional Rail Brian Balderrama.

Planning for the Pico Rivera station is not as far along.

Metro will hire a consultant to start the feasibility study this fall, wrote Fuhrman and Balderrama in an email. The study will begin in the fall. Completion of the study is expected in the fall of 2024, they reported.

This follows a Metro board motion approved in February 2023 from Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn, Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian and Whittier City Council member Fernando Dutra to authorize the feasibility study.

The station would integrate with plans for a future A Line (formerly Gold Line) Eastside Extension, as well as a new bus rapid transit line — plus bike paths for active transportation, Fuhrman and Balderrama wrote. The cost ranges from $20 million to $200 million, according to a city report.

Pico Rivera City Manager Steve Carmona said the addition of a Metrolink station is part of an overall city transportation and sustainability plan.

“One, it is for economic development. Two, it is to create an environment to take residents out of their cars,” Carmona said on Tuesday, June 27.

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Metrolink gets collision-avoidance technology, Metro gets downtown connector
Metrolink to add crash-resistant train cars to its lines
Metro L Line eastside light-rail extension to Montebello gets $35 million grant from state
Pico Rivera just got $1.05 million to turn a bus depot into a much-needed park

​ Orange County Register 

Wallace Neff-designed home in San Marino lists after 55 years for $6.8M

• June 27, 2023

For the first time in 55 years, a San Marino mansion by noted architect Wallace Neff is on the market.

The asking price is $6.75 million.

Designed in an Italian revival style, this 7,381-square-foot house sits on nearly 1 acre of park-like grounds with six bedrooms and eight bathrooms.

The listing calls it “a rare opportunity to update a historically significant and stately two-story home in one of the city’s premiere locations” across from The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Garden grounds.

Multiple listing service photos show the home is well-maintained, albeit dated. A wide circular driveway leads to the house’s front facade, embellished with black shutters.

The front door opens into a grand foyer with a staircase, one of two. There is also a service staircase. A fireplace anchors the formal living room, which leads to an impressive wood-paneled library with bookcases lining the wall.

Floral wall coverings match the drapes in the formal dining room. From there, a door swings into the butler’s pantry and beyond to the kitchen. Like the kitchen, has breakfast room’s walls feature the same floral pattern as the dining room.

A highlight of the second floor is the spacious primary suite. It has two dressing rooms and a full bathroom, one of four on this level.

The grounds feature a solar-heated pool, a pool cabana with a dressing room and a bathroom, and a lighted north-south tennis court.

Neff, who died in 1982 at 87, was known for designing period revival style homes for the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant and other Southern California celebrities. His most celebrated work is the Pickfair mansion in Beverly Hills, which he transformed from a lodge into a Tudor style for Hollywood power couple Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks in 1927.

According to listing agent Bill Podley of DPP Real Estate, the San Marino home was built as a spec property by Neff’s brother-in-law, Thaddeus Up de Graff Jr., in 1929. The first owner was Stuart Llewellyn Williams, a real estate broker and Nevada gold mine owner, who bought it in 1930. It sold last in 1968 for $125,000.

Records show the home belongs to the family of Martha and E. Leroy Tolles. Martha Tolles, 101, is a best-selling author of the Katie and Darci children’s fiction series and the adult historical novel “Love and Sabotage.” Roy Tolles, who died in 2008 at 85, was a founding partner of the nationally recognized Los Angeles law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson.

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Severe storms scuttle more than 7,000 US flights

• June 27, 2023

By Chris Isidore and Jordan Valinksy | CNN

Claude Ronnie Msowoya and his family spent three days trying to get to Johannesburg, South Africa, only to be forced to return home by train, without his baggage.

Msowoya told CNN that his United Airlines flight from Boston to Newark airport was delayed Sunday, which caused him and his family to miss their connecting United Airline flight from Newark to Johannesburg.

Msowoya said his family was eventually booked on another United Airlines flight that was scheduled to take off Monday evening, but it was also canceled.

“We had to go to the customer service line, which had taken us 10 hours the previous day. We didn’t get any help and later tried to get our bags to cancel the trip. We stood in line for 6 hours at luggage claim only to be told that they won’t be giving anyone their luggage and they should file a claim and pray and hope that their luggage gets delivered to them,” Msowoya said.

Msowoya told CNN his family decided to take a train back home to Boston after spending three days in Newark airport.

His story was hardly unique. Disruptions for air travelers continued Tuesday for a fourth day with more than 7,000 flights across the United States delayed or canceled after powerful storms ripped through the parts of the country, including in the Mid-Atlantic and parts of the Northeast where many busy hubs are located.

Data from FlightAware showed that, on Tuesday afternoon, more than 5,400 flights within, into or out of the US were delayed and more than 1,600 were canceled. Still, that’s a major decrease from Monday’s chaos, when more than 11,000 flights were either delayed or canceled because of severe weather and air traffic control staffing issues.

United Airlines was once again faring the worst of the US domestic airlines. About 16% of its schedule, or 467 flights, was canceled and another 37%, or 1,062 flights, was delayed just before 6 pm ET. Republic Airways, which operates feeder flights for American Airlines, Delta and United, had 35% of its schedule canceled (333 flights).

The four US airports most affected Tuesday afternoon are all major hubs for either United or Delta: New Jersey’s Newark Liberty, both of New York City’s airports (LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy) and Boston’s Logan. But the problems weren’t limited to the Northeast. There were 17 airports spread across the country, from San Francisco to Orlando, which had at least 20% of their flights delayed according to FlightAware.

More than 40 million people in the Northeast and Central Plains are at risk of severe storms on Tuesday. The majority of people at risk are located in the Northeast, including Philadelphia and Washington, DC, where a Level 1 of 5 threat has been issued by the Storm Prediction Center. A level 3 of 5 threat, of severe weather, is highlighted for parts of Kansas and Oklahoma, including Wichita and Tulsa.

Scattered thunderstorms are again expected east of a cold front from the Mid-Atlantic into parts of the Northeast, leading to the possibility of even more flight delays and cancellations later.

Some of these afternoon storms could produce damaging wind gusts, and heavy rain from these storms could produce isolated instances of flash flooding, particularly over parts of southeastern New York, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

United CEO blames FAA for weekend delays

Since travel problems started to mount on Saturday there have been more than 5,000 flights to, from or within the United States canceled according to FlightAware’s midday stats at midday Tuesday, and another 28,500 delayed.

While weather is part of the reason for the problem, a lack of adequate staffing at the air traffic control centers run by the Federal Aviation Administration and a lack of capacity at US airlines also come into play.

That adds to the problem, making it difficult for the system to handle disruptions caused by bad weather, and for passengers to find seats on new flights when their original flight is canceled.

The head of United Airlines, in a strongly worded memo to staff, blamed the FAA’s air traffic controller staffing problems for “unprecedented challenges” this past weekend that impacted “over 150,000 customers on United alone.”

“The FAA frankly failed us this weekend,” said United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby in an internal company memo shared with CNN.

Kirby says that on Saturday, the FAA reduced arrival rates at its major hub at Newark Liberty International Airport by 40 percent and departure rates by 75 percent, which was “almost certainly a reflection of understaffing/lower experience at the FAA.”

“It led to massive delays, cancellations, diversions, as well as crews and aircraft out of position,” Kirby said. “And that put everyone behind the eight ball when weather actually did hit on Sunday and was further compounded by FAA staffing shortages Sunday evening.”

Kirby says he will be meeting with the FAA and Department of Transportation “to discuss what steps FAA can take in the immediate term to prevent this from happening again this summer.”

The FAA responded Tuesday morning, saying “we will always collaborate with anyone seriously willing to join us to solve a problem.”

In the memo, Kirby was careful to say the current FAA leadership did not create the current staffing problem, but that they need to deal with them. “To be fair, it’s not the fault of the current FAA leadership,” he wrote, but added “they are responsible for solving the problem they inherited.”

These latest problems come at an especially busy time. With millions of passengers set to pack commercial flights for the long holiday weekend, the Transportation Security Administration says July 4 air travel will be even bigger than it was before the pandemic.

The agency anticipates screening 2.82 million people at airports nationwide on Friday, surpassing a post-pandemic record set on June 16 as well as the 2.79 million passengers the TSA screened on July 7, 2019.

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FBI, Homeland Security ignored ‘massive amount’ of intelligence before Jan. 6, Senate report says

• June 27, 2023

By MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON — The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security downplayed or ignored “a massive amount of intelligence information” ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S Capitol, according to the chairman of a Senate panel that on Tuesday released a new report on the intelligence failures ahead of the insurrection.

The report details how the agencies failed to recognize and warn of the potential for violence as some of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters openly planned the siege in messages and forums online.

Among the multitude of intelligence that was overlooked was a December 2020 tip to the FBI that members of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys planned to be in Washington, D.C., for the certification of Joe Biden’s victory and their “plan is to literally kill people,” the report said. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said the agencies were also aware of many social media posts that foreshadowed violence, some calling on Trump’s supporters to “come armed” and storm the Capitol, kill lawmakers or “burn the place to the ground.”

Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the Democratic chairman of the Homeland panel, said the breakdown was “largely a failure of imagination to see threats that the Capitol could be breached as credible,” echoing the findings of the Sept. 11 commission about intelligence failures ahead of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The report by the panel’s majority staff says the intelligence community has not entirely recalibrated to focus on the threats of domestic, rather than international, terrorism. And government intelligence leaders failed to sound the alarm “in part because they could not conceive that the U.S. Capitol Building would be overrun by rioters.”

Still, Peters said, the reasons for dismissing what he called a “massive” amount of intelligence “defies an easy explanation.”

While several other reports have examined the intelligence failures around Jan. 6 — including a bipartisan 2021 Senate report, the House Jan. 6 committee last year and several separate internal assessments by the Capitol Police and other government agencies — the latest investigation is the first congressional report to focus solely on the actions of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis.

In the wake of the attack, Peters said the committee interviewed officials at both agencies and found what was “pretty constant finger pointing” at each other.

“Everybody should be accountable because everybody failed,” Peters said.

Using emails and interviews collected by the Senate committee and others, including from the House Jan. 6 panel, the report lays out in detail the intelligence the agencies received in the weeks ahead of the attack.

There was not a failure to obtain evidence, the report says, but the agencies “failed to fully and accurately assess the severity of the threat identified by that intelligence, and formally disseminate guidance to their law enforcement partners.”

As Trump, a Republican, falsely claimed he had won the 2020 election and tried to overturn his election defeat, telling his supporters to “ fight like hell ” in a speech in front of the White House that day, thousands of them marched to the Capitol. More than 2,000 rioters overran law enforcement, assaulted police officers, and caused more than $2.7 billion in damage to the Capitol, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report earlier this year.

Breaking through windows and doors, the rioters sent lawmakers running for their lives and temporarily interrupted the certification of the election victory by Biden, a Democrat.

Even as the attack was happening, the new report found, the FBI and Homeland Security downplayed the threat. As the Capitol Police struggled to clear the building, Homeland Security “was still struggling to assess the credibility of threats against the Capitol and to report out its intelligence.”

And at a 10 a.m. briefing as protesters gathered at Trump’s speech and near the Capitol were “wearing ballistic helmets, body armor, carrying radio equipment and military grade backpacks,” the FBI briefed that there were “no credible threats at this time.”

The lack of sufficient warnings meant that law enforcement were not adequately prepared and there was not a hardened perimeter established around the Capitol, as there is during events like the annual State of the Union address.

The report contains dozens of tips about violence on Jan. 6 that the agencies received and dismissed either due to lack of coordination, bureaucratic delays or trepidation on the part of those who were collecting it. The FBI, for example, was unexpectedly hindered in its attempt to find social media posts planning for Jan. 6 protests when the contract for its third-party social media monitoring tool expired. At Homeland Security, analysts were hesitant to report open-source intelligence after criticism in 2020 for collecting intelligence on American citizens during racial justice demonstrations.

One tip received by the FBI ahead of the Jan. 6 attack was from a former Justice Department official who sent screenshots of online posts from members of the Oath Keepers extremist group: “There is only one way in. It is not signs. It’s not rallies. It’s f—— bullets!”

The social media company Parler, a favored platform for Trump’s supporters, directly sent the FBI several posts it found alarming, adding that there was “more where this came from” and that they were concerned about what would happen on Jan. 6.

”(T)his is not a rally and it’s no longer a protest,” read one of the Parler posts sent to the FBI, according to the report. “This is a final stand where we are drawing the red line at Capitol Hill. (…) don’t be surprised if we take the #capital (sic) building.”

But even as it received the warnings, the Senate panel found, the agency said over and over again that there were no credible threats.

“Our nation is still reckoning with the fallout from January 6th, but what is clear is the need for a reevaluation of the federal government’s domestic intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination processes,” the new report says.

In a statement, Homeland Security spokesperson Angelo Fernandez said that the department has made many of those changes two and a half years later. The department “has strengthened intelligence analysis, information sharing, and operational preparedness to help prevent acts of violence and keep our communities safe.”

The FBI said in a separate response that since the attack it has increased focus on “swift information sharing” and centralized the flow of information to ensure more timely notification to other entities. “The FBI is determined to aggressively fight the danger posed by all domestic violent extremists, regardless of their motivations,” the statement said.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has defended the FBI’s handling of intelligence in the run-up to Jan. 6, including a report from its Norfolk field office on Jan. 5 that cited online posts foreshadowing the possibility of a “war” in Washington the following day. The Senate report noted that the memo “did not note the multitude of other warnings” the agency had received.

The faultfinding with the FBI and Homeland Security Department echoes the blistering criticism directed at U.S. Capitol Police in a bipartisan report issued by the Senate Homeland and Rules committees two years ago. That report found that the police intelligence unit knew about social media posts calling for violence, as well, but did not inform top leadership what they had found.

Peters says he asked for the probe of the intelligence agencies after other reports, such as the House panel’s investigation last year, focused on other aspects of the attack. The Jan. 6 panel was more focused on Trump’s actions, and concluded in its report that the former president criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol.

“It’s important for us to realize these failures to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Peters said.

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.

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USWNT World Cup roster features a lot of new faces, but goal remains the same

• June 27, 2023

CARSON — Some of the faces on the roster are new and the coach will be in his first FIFA World Cup, but the objective for the U.S. women’s soccer team heading into next month’s tournament isn’t changing.

“There’s only one thing on our mind,” USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski said Tuesday during Media Day at Dignity Health Sports Park. “Our goal is to win the World Cup. I don’t think anybody is thinking about anything different.”

For Andonovski, this will be his first World Cup at the helm of the national team. He was hired in October 2019.

He’s taking a team, that although it is going through a makeover, is ranked No. 1 in the world, according to the FIFA rankings and one that has already won four World Cups (1991, 1999, 2015, 2019 ) and is looking to become the first national team, men or women, to win a third consecutive World Cup.

This trip to Australia and New Zealand, however, might be the most challenging because, as some have said, the world is gaining ground on the U.S., which will also be without several key contributors (team captain Becky Sauerbrunn and forwards Mallory Swanson and Catarina Macario).

“I think the competition started getting closer 25 years ago, but we just had a great staff that found a way to push this team and set the standards high,” Andonovski said. “We’re in one of the hardest groups. They’re all three different teams, but I think we have enough time to prepare for each separately.

“Our first goal is to win the group before moving on to the ultimate goals.”

The U.S. will open Group E play on July 21 against Vietnam, followed by matches against the Netherlands (July 26) and Portugal (Aug. 1). All of those will be played in New Zealand.

There are 14 players participating in their first World Cup, including Angel City FC’s Alyssa Thompson, who is the second youngest player to make a U.S. World Cup roster (18 years, 7 months) to Bellflower native Savannah DeMelo, who has yet to appear in a national team game.

“I’m not worrying about inexperience. With players like Megan (Rapinoe), Alex (Morgan) and Lindsay (Horan), I’m confident in knowing they’re going to lead the young group,” Andonovski said. “If I had to pick a group of players to lead, they would be the ones to lead.”

Rapinoe and Morgan are headed to their fourth World Cup, along with midfielder Kelly O’Hara. Morgan has played in the most World Cup games (18), scoring nine goals. Rapinoe has played in 17, also with nine goals.

“This is not a team that’s going to rest on their laurels,” Rapinoe said. “As one of the best teams in the world, you’re always on a razor’s edge around the World Cup because there is so much to fight for.

“That’s been the fuel for this team. We strive to be the best, try to win every game and continue to put our best foot forward and try to win the World Cup.”

The Americans will face Wales in a send-off match on July 9 in San Jose and then shortly afterward, make the journey to New Zealand for a chance to make history.

“This does feel different than any other World Cup,” Rapinoe said. “This one feels like a show up and show out kind of vibe. It will be incredible and an opportunity to blow the lid off for the women’s game.”

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Gustav Klimt painting sets European record with $108 million price tag

• June 27, 2023

LONDON — A late-life masterpiece by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt sold Tuesday for 85.3 million pounds ($108.4 million), making it the most expensive artwork ever auctioned in Europe.

“Dame mit Fächer” — Lady With a Fan — sold to a buyer in the room at Sotheby’s in London after a 10-minute bidding war for a hammer price of 74 million pounds ($94.35 million). The higher final figure includes a charge on top of the sale price known as the buyer’s premium.

The sale price well exceeded the presale estimate of 65 million pounds, or $80 million.

It also beat the previous European auction record of $104.3 million — 65 million pounds at the time — including buyer’s premium paid for Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture “Walking Man I” at Sotheby’s in 2010. Previously, the most expensive painting auctioned in Europe was Claude Monet’s “Le basin aux nymphéas,” which fetched $80.4 million at a Christie’s sale in 2008.

The piece sold Tuesday was the last portrait Klimt completed before his death in 1918. The painting shows an unidentified woman against a resplendent, China-influenced backdrop of dragons and lotus blossoms.

It was last sold in 1994, going for $11.6 million at an auction in New York.

Sotheby’s said the buyer was art adviser Patti Wong, acting on behalf of a Hong Kong collector.

Famed for his bold, daring art nouveau paintings, Klimt was a key figure in artistic modernism at the start of the 20th century. His work has fetched some of the highest prices for any artist.

Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II” sold at a New York auction in 2006 for $87.9 million, and his landscape “Birch Forest” sold at Christie’s in New York last year for $104.6 million.

Two more of his portraits are reported to have sold privately for more than $100 million.

The world auction record for an artwork is the $450.3 million paid in 2017 for Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” though some experts dispute whether the panting of Jesus Christ is wholly the work of the Renaissance master.

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Rivalry between Trump and DeSantis deepens with dueling New Hampshire campaign events

• June 27, 2023

By MICHELLE L. PRICE, HOLLY RAMER and WILL WEISSERT

HOLLIS, N.H. — The rivalry between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump deepened Tuesday as the two leading Republican White House candidates staged dueling events in the critical early voting state of New Hampshire.

Addressing a town hall in Hollis, DeSantis vowed to “actually” build the U.S.-Mexico border wall that Trump tried but failed to complete as president while pledging to tear down Washington’s traditional power centers in ways that Trump fell short.

Speaking later at a Republican women’s luncheon in Concord, Trump countered that DeSantis was being forced to settle for second place in the primary and accused the governor of supporting cuts to Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs as a way to tame federal spending.

Beyond the rhetoric, the conflicting events demonstrated each candidate’s evolving strategy. DeSantis took extensive audience questions — a trademark in New Hampshire politics that he eschewed during his previous visit to the state, drawing criticisms that he was stilted and overly scripted.

Trump, meanwhile, offered his traditional, free-wheeling speech for more than hour but didn’t take questions. Reporters covering the event were confined to a pen, chaperoned to the bathroom and told they could not speak to attendees in the conference center ballroom or even in the hallways.

See what Kevin McCarthy is saying about Donald Trump

DeSantis, asked about people who had twice voted for Trump because of his promises to “drain the swamp” in Washington used his answer to draw some of his sharpest contrasts yet with the former president.

“He didn’t drain it. It’s worse today than it’s ever been,” DeSantis said. He added that such promises don’t go far enough because a subsequent president “can just refill it.”

“I want to break the swamp,” DeSantis said, pledging to take power out of Washington by instructing Cabinet agencies to halve the number of employees there.

DeSantis has tried to gain ground on Trump by questioning the former president’s continued hold on the national Republican party. At his town hall, the governor slammed the GOP’s “culture of losing” under Trump and mentioned the “massive red wave” that many in the GOP predicted but that never materialized nationally in last year’s midterm elections.

“We had a red wave in Florida,” DeSantis said, noting he easily won reelection last fall. “But that’s because we delivered results in Florida.”

Many leading Republicans remain fiercely loyal to Trump, but there is some evidence that the attacks against the former president are resonating. Speaking about Trump on Tuesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said, “Can he win that election? Yeah, he can win that election.”

“The question is, is he the strongest to win the election?” McCarthy continued on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I don’t know that answer.” He clarified later in the day to the conservative news outlet Breitbart that Trump “is stronger today than he was in 2016.”

At his own event, Trump noted that DeSantis is “holding an event right now to compete with us.” He also vowed to “drain the swamp once and for all” but used the slogan more to criticize President Joe Biden than the Florida governor.

“You can’t drain the swamp if you’re part of the swamp, and Joe Biden and other opponents, many of them, are all owned, controlled, bought and paid for, 100%,” Trump said.

The former president also largely echoed DeSantis’ sentiments in promising that “this election will be the end of the world for the corrupt political class in our nation’s capital.”

DeSantis was also asked about the pro-Trump mob that overran the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, and responded, “If it’s about relitigating things that happened two or three years ago, we’re going to lose.”

“I had nothing to do with what happened that day. Obviously, I didn’t enjoy seeing it,” DeSantis said. “But we’ve got to go forward on this stuff. We cannot be looking backwards.”

That, too, clashed with Trump, who repeated baseless claims Tuesday that he was denied a second term by election fraud. Numerous federal and local officials, a long list of courts, top former campaign staffers and even Trump’s own attorney general have all said there is no evidence of the fraud he alleges.

The candidates’ simultaneous visits highlighted the role that New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation GOP primary state, will play in deciding the next Republican presidential nominee. Much of the focus of the early primary has been on Iowa and South Carolina, where evangelical Christians are dominant.

Spending time in New Hampshire, by contrast, gives the candidates were testing their messages in front of a more libertarian-leaning electorate.

Trump’s first-place finish in New Hampshire’s 2016 Republican primary, after losing Iowa to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, helped propel him to party dominance. But his Democratic rivals won the state in the 2016 and 2020 general elections.

Before his speech Tuesday, Trump announced that his New Hampshire team features 150-plus dedicated activists and organizers throughout the state’s 10 counties.

Sabrina Antle, from the town of Henniker, said she couldn’t afford to attend the lunch in Concord where Trump spoke. She and her 9-year-old daughter tried to see the former president later in the day, when he was in Manchester to open his campaign office, but the event reached capacity before the pair could get in.

“I’m a Trumper but I wouldn’t be upset with Ron DeSantis because I think he’d do a stand up job,” Antle said. “I just don’t know if he has the attitude Trump has, just the assertiveness.”

DeSantis’ campaign angered some members of the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women by scheduling his town hall around the same time Trump was addressing the group’s luncheon. It called DeSantis’ event “an attempt to steal focus from” its lunch, noting that other presidential candidates scheduled around it.

That didn’t stop DeSantis, who at the town hall talked up the new immigration policy proposal he released Monday in South Texas — betting that the issue can energize GOP voters, even those who are 2,000 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We’re actually going to build the wall,” DeSantis said of Trump’s failed pledges to do so. “A lot of politicians chirp. They make grandiose promises and then fail to deliver the actual results. The time for excuses is over. Now is the time to deliver results and finally get the job done.”

But the Florida governor also tailored his Tuesday message to New Hampshire, noting how tougher border security could eventually help limit the ravages of opioid addiction, which have hit the state particularly hard, even as deaths from overdoses have climbed all over the country.

He promised the “most assertive” policy against drug cartels “any administration has ever had.”

”We have to do it,” DeSantis said “because it will save lives.”

Ramer reported from Manchester, New Hampshire. Weissert reported from Washington.

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