Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis sat down with conservative commentator Glenn Beck on Sept. 23, to reaffirm his plans to reverse what he sees as America’s decline.
The Republican presidential candidate spent the air time outlining his stance on issues like China, the weaponization of the federal government, critical race theory and other ideologies, the war in Ukraine, and immigration.
But he made a point to distinguish himself from the rest of his political party.
“Republicans have run saying they’re going to do all these things for so many years,” he said. “And then what ends up happening is not only do they not do it. They don’t even actually try.
“We understand if you fight the fight, you don’t always win. But, man, we want to see a fight, and we want to see that, and the results, I think, is typically just failure theater, and that’s what we become accustomed to. And that’s not the way I do it.”
The governor called out his fellow Republicans for not being willing to start attacking the Left on social issues and on an institutional level like he says he did in Florida.
“I think a lot of times, it’s just the path of least resistance,” he said of the GOP’s preferred previous track record.
“If you get in the office as a Republican, you cut a few taxes, you know, you may pare back some regulations, you know, maybe do one or two things. You can kind of do that, and maybe you don’t face the fire.
“If you start getting in at the institutional level, where the Left sees that they’re losing control, they fight back. And they fight back hard, and you just got to have the spine to stand there. Do what’s right, take the fire, and keep on going forward.”
Mr. DeSantis has overseen the passing of several pieces of legislation that banned transgender surgery on minors, protected the rights of parents and their authority over their children, and reformed education in the state by eliminating gender ideology and critical race theory from the classrooms in his going-on two terms in Tallahassee.
He recounted the attacks he has taken from the media and politicians, from both the Right and the Left, for his active fight against aspects of what has been called “woke culture,” specifically his fight with The Walt Disney Company.
While Republicans, he said, don’t like to be called racists and face other attacks for fighting against these movements, he has the confidence to be upfront with people about what he is fighting against and “let the chips fall where they may.”
“People in the Republican Party are like, ‘well, we don’t we don’t mess around with business. You know, it’s kind of like a chamber of commerce view,’ as to like corporations can just do whatever they want,” he said.
“Really? They’re allowed to mobilize subsidies that they'd have inherited from Florida against our parents and our policies? Not on my watch, we’re going to fight back.”
His differing decision not to leave well enough alone when it comes to businesses was also highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I called this special session of the legislature and got them to pass legislation that protected every job in Florida, including at private companies,” he said of Florida’s ban on vaccine mandates.
“I had corporate Republicans attacking me for that. They were saying: ‘Well if a corporation wants to force someone to take an mNRA shot, they can always, get another job.’
“No, no. We didn’t want you to have to choose between a job you need and a shot you didn’t want. And, so, we put those protections in.”
The Iraq war veteran also reaffirmed that he was ready to fight against the “deep state.”
Claiming that the agencies have been “weaponized” against not only former President Donald Trump, but also against Catholics, parents, and pro-life activists, he plans not only to fire current agency directors like Christopher Wray at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) but to “slay the administrative state” by making changes two or three layers deep.
“Do we govern ourselves or not,” he asked. “And if we govern ourselves, then we can’t take it anymore. We’ve got to change the way things are going. We can’t have a fourth branch of government that acts really regardless of the outcome of elections.”
He called back to his time dealing with federal agencies like the FBI and Central Intelligence Agency while serving on active duty and overseeing them as the National Security Subcommittee Chairman while he was serving in the U.S. Congress. And he raised the previous inaction of his party.
“There are a lot of levers that Republican presidents have not been willing to push because I think a lot of them come in thinking that they can win these people over or hope that they can win these people over, and you can’t,” he said.
“You’ve just got to understand that they have accumulated power. They’re not going to give it back willingly.”
But, when it comes to “draining the swamp,” Mr. DeSantis argues that he is the best man for the job, citing that he is still the only elected official in America who has ever removed state prosecutors backed by billionaire activist George Soros.
“I know where to come in, how to deal with the FBI, how to deal with the DOJ, how to grant clemency for Donald Trump and these other people,” he said.
“I will be in a position to do that very, very effectively. So if you want to end the weaponization, if you want to de-fang the administrative state ... I’m the best vehicle to be able to get that done.”
Mr. DeSantis is scheduled to participate in the second Republican Presidential Debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California on Sept. 27.
He retains the second-highest polling percentage among voters but remains more than 40 percentage points behind President Trump.
