Florida Governor Ron DeSantis joined me this AM:

Audio:

01-18hhs-desantis

Transcript:

HH: Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida joins me. Good morning, Governor. Welcome back.

RD: Good morning. How are you doing?

HH: Good. Yesterday, Loper Bright was on the docket at the Supreme Court. You’re one of the few people I don’t have to really brief about Chevron deference. How important is it that Chevron deference be overturned, Governor?

RD: Well, I think it would restore the proper structure of the Constitution. What the Supreme Court has essentially greenlit over many, many decades is the idea that the executive branch, and then now what’s turned into a permanent fourth branch of government with the bureaucracy, that they basically can make law. And they get to implement laws in ways that Congress may never have intended, but the Court should just step out of it and say that the executive bureaucrats are experts, and let that happen. And that has caused a huge amount of power to flow to the unelected bureaucracy. So reversing Chevron deference, I think, restores a proper sense of checks and balances.

HH: What do you make of Sheldon Whitehouse and Dick Durbin and other Democrats’ continuing attack on our Supreme Court justices? All of them. Does it endanger their lives? Does it endanger the Court?

RD: They are trying. So they have now, it’s at least a nominal 6-3 majority. I mean, there’s only three reliable liberal justices for them. You know, how reliable the other six depend on the issue. But the bottom line is they know that they are likely to lose most of the big cases at this point, so they’re just trying to delegitimize the Court in the eyes of the public. I do think if Democrats sweep in, they will try to pack the Supreme Court after the 2024 Election and add a bunch of new liberal justices. And I think they’re trying to drive particular justices like Clarence Thomas off the Court by attacking him on all these things that, you know, they say oh, he had gifts. And then you look, and Sotomayor had way more, and they don’t say anything about that. So I think it’s no question, it’s an orchestrated effort not just with a few U.S. senators, but also from these liberal groups.

HH: Now Governor DeSantis, yesterday, Senate Democrats and President Biden presented Speaker Johnson with a proposed deal at the White House – funding for Ukraine, funding for Taiwan, funding for Israel, and some minor changes to border law. Speaker Johnson said no. I want this rejected unless there are 900 miles of border wall authorized in a way that cannot be avoided and constructed with current dollars. What do you think of the deal that was offered? What do you think Speaker Johnson should say?

RD: Yeah, it should be dead on arrival. We have an unprecedented crisis at our border where we’ve had over 8 million people come in illegally from all over the world, including from hostile nations with hostile populations. And yet Biden is basically just greenlighting it. When he’s asked for money in the past, it hasn’t been to stop the illegal immigration. It’s been to process more illegals. And we’re now in a situation where New York City is closing down a school, sending the kids home so that they can commandeer it to house illegal aliens? It’s crazy. And of course, this has made us vulnerable to terrorist attacks. So I think the Republicans should insist on the border problem being solved. I mean, I do think that that means border wall, but I also think that that means cleaning up the legal language that has allowed him to abuse his power like parole and the like. And they should just hold firm. The public is with the Republicans on this. This is Biden’s issue. Of all the issues that he’s handling, and he’s unpopular on most, this one is like the worst. He’s got the worst ratings that any president has ever had on immigration and the border. You guys can win this fight. Just hold firm.

HH: Now I believe the border wall is the signal amid the noise. When I say that, what’s that mean to you, Governor?

RD: Well, I mean, I think if a deal were to have actual money to actually fully construct the wall, then you would know that that’s a deal that at least is moving in the direction of being serious about the border. I mean, if you don’t have that, then you know that they’re not probably going to do anything, because even if they did make legal changes, Biden would not necessarily do it. And that’s why I want a wall. I’ve always supported the wall. I mean, I supported it when President Trump promised the wall, because it’s a physical fact of life. You’re going to have administrations that may not be dedicated to border security, but that wall is there. If you don’t have a wall, then you’re basically putting all your eggs in the basket of executive discretion. And with Obama, we saw how that worked. And now with Biden, we’re seeing it in disastrous consequences.

HH: One more question, Governor. Like me, you’re an Ivy League guy, and you doubled down and I went to Michigan for law school. There’s a headline in the Wall Street Journal today. Harvard is trying to smooth things over with Silicon Valley. Endowment brass meet with venture capitalists to address concerns about campus turmoil. I recoiled from that. How you do react to that headline?

RD: Well, look, these guys that have given so much money to these universities, you know, a lot of them claim they don’t like to see these Hamas protests. They don’t like the DEI. They don’t like a lot of this stuff. But you know, this isn’t new. I mean, I think the post-October 7th stuff that happened on campus, that kind of brought it more in our faces, but I think people that have been following this have known that these universities have lost their way for a long time. And I know some donors are pulling back, and that’s the only way these institutions are going to change with withholding the checks, because that’s what they need to function. And as of now, you know, they’ve always been able to go and get someone to write a $100 million dollar check. And as long as that happens, I don’t think the culture of the universities are going to change.

HH: What slapped me about this is it’s elites talking to elites about how to fix the elites’ problems. It’s not talking about what college should do or what America needs. It’s elites talking to elites, and I’m sick of it.

HH: Well, I’ll tell you, in Florida, we just made, we said look. Our universities are funded by the people of Florida with tax dollars. And so they don’t have the right to just do whatever the hell they want to do. They need to be focused on a mission that is advancing the wellbeing of the people of Florida and the best interests of the state. And so we’ve done things like all tenured professors have to undergo post-tenure review every 5 years, and then they can be terminated for poor performance. We eliminated DEI from our public universities. And we basically said the purpose of higher ed is not to impose ideology. It’s not political or social activism. It’s the pursuit of truth. It’s the high academic standards and preparing students to be citizens of the republic. So we’ve had success, and like we have a liberal arts college down in Sarasota, New College. It had been basically like a Marxist commune. I put seven conservatives on the board of trustees. They’ve overhauled the curriculum. They’re bringing in more diverse, intellectually diverse set of professors. And they said our mission is to be a classical liberal arts college, similar to like a Hillsdale in Michigan. So we’re leaning in on that in Florida. And you know what’s happened, Hugh. Huge amount of interest from parents all around the country when they see that we’re doing that, because I think a lot of parents out there are like okay, you spend 18 years instilling values in your kids, and then what, they go to a university and it’s all undone in four years? And so when they see what we’re doing in Florida as really kind of getting away from that model, which I think has been a failed model of higher education, and restoring a classical model of higher education, there’s a lot of interest in this. And so we’ve really benefitted by charting this course. We’ve got more that we’re going to do, but it’s exciting.

HH: Now let’s turn to politics, Governor. My assessment is you’re hoping Donald Trump wins New Hampshire and South Carolina, and that you are there on Tuesday, March the 5th, and Super Tuesday, 16 states, March 12th, four states, on March 19th, 5 states. But you don’t want Nikki Haley to win, and you want DeSantis supporters to support Trump in New Hampshire on Tuesday. Am I correct?

RD: Well, here’s the thing. I don’t think it’s a question of hope. I mean, I was on the ground doing town halls in New Hampshire the last two days. You know, Nikki Haley cannot compete with Donald Trump there. And the fact that she can’t do it there, she can’t do it anywhere. She’s certainly not going to do it in South Carolina. I did a rally, you know, we had town halls Tuesday afternoon and evening, one on CNN scheduled for the day after Iowa. So I had the morning where we were basically just going to get a little bit of recouperation. But I was like, you know what? Let’s just use that time. So we went to South Carolina and did a rally. There was like a thousand people. I said hey, can you tell me what were the major accomplishments of Nikki Haley when she was governor. I did not have anyone raise their hand. That is not going to be a state that is conducive, I know she was governor there, but I mean, it’s a conservative state. Obviously, Trump has a very strong, strong foothold there. So that’s just the reality. New Hampshire is a momentum state. I mean, our view on this was we were going to do Iowa, and then that would be how we would do New Hampshire. And obviously, they spent massive amounts of money against me to try to knock me out. I came in second, but Trump had a good, you know, he had a good showing in terms of him winning the nomination. I will say this, though. I mean, in terms of how do you start off the process. Clearly, when you win Iowa by the amount he did, you know, that’s what you want to be doing if you’re going to win the nomination. But you know, half the Iowans voted for someone else. And the turnout was so abysmal, and I don’t think it was just the weather. I was out there. Look, I’m a Florida guy. I don’t do negative temperatures ever, and I was trudging through that. And I get that, why that would affect. But if you look, there was 110,000 people that showed up. 186,000 voted in 2016. But there were 20,000 independents and 7,000 Democrats, mostly voting for Haley, who came. So that means there were about less than 85,000 Republicans even participated. I think that’s a warning sign for the party going forward into the fall. And I think one of the issues we had was you know, there was so much negative coming in particularly against me that I think it turned some people off from even participating. And then I think there’s some other folks who were just like well, you know, media says Trump’s got it, and so they just kind of checked out from the process. So it was not a good, I think, night for Republicans if you’re looking forward to November of 2024.

HH: Are you staying in through all of March’s races? Is there any way Ron DeSantis drops out before the end of March?

RD: Look, my goal is to, is to win the nomination. If we’d won Iowa, we would have been in a great spot. You know, coming in second gives us the ticket to continue, but I told me people this from the very beginning. I don’t want to be V.P. I don’t want to be in the cabinet. I don’t want a T.V. show. I’m in it to win it, and at some point, you know, if that’s not working out for you, like I recognize that this isn’t a vanity thing for me. But I do believe that we have an opportunity in November to do very, very well. I also think that there’s pitfalls by choosing the course that the party faithful chose in Iowa. And I don’t think any of that’s changed. I don’t think that there are people necessarily talking about it. There’s a lot of sense on the Republican side that somehow, you know, Biden will win, anyone could win like a Regan landslide against Biden. And they haven’t even started. The Dems haven’t even started. They’re going to drop billions of dollars. And what they want to run on is they want to run on all the stuff surrounding Donald Trump, January 6th, all the legal issues. That’s what they want to run on. And the question is, is that going to be effective with those independent voters that we need to win? I can tell you in Florida, we showed how to win all of those people, with strong leadership.

HH: But Governor, before we go to the break, are you in through the end of March? Do you have the money and the staff and the ability to compete through the end of March?

RD: Oh, yes on that. 100%. We can do that.

HH: Okay. I’m going to come right back from break. I’m talking with Governor Ron DeSantis. We’re going to talk some more politics and horse race, because I’ve done the substance. I’ve got some more substance to do.

— – – – —

HH: Welcome back. I’m joined by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Governor DeSantis, I want to run through the trials that people know about – the Jean Carroll trial, which I think is a joke and will be overturned, Letitia James and the wild judge in New York, which I think is a joke and will be overturned against the former President, the Alvin Bragg indictment in Manhattan, I think, is a joke. I think the Fani Willis trial in Georgia is now revealed as at least brought for corrupt purposes, meaning money for her lover. And I think Jack Smith has invented wholly new theories out of whole cloth in D.C. The Mar-A-Lago case is different. The Colorado Supreme Court, illegitimate throwing Trump off the ballot, a Maine Secretary of State throwing Trump off the ballot. Was this a plan to get the former President nominated, or a series of improbable prosecutions that just happened?

RD: You know, I don’t know what the plan in terms of did they know what the impact was, but there’s no question when the Bragg case was brought, you know, that supercharged him with Republican voters. I mean, you see it very clearly. I saw it in real time. You know, I was like getting ready to run. I didn’t know what was going to happen, and whether that was just a blip or what, and then I got into the race. You know, we did a week or two, and we were doing well. And then the Mar-A-Lago documents indictments came down, and that totally blotted everything out of the news, and it was all about that going forward. And then, of course, they did the D.C. stuff. So I don’t know whether it was a plan. I think that they just have a base that is hard-wired to hate Trump. I mean, that has been the number one animating feature for their political party since he took office in 2017. And that’s how they energize their voters, and that’s how they get them out to vote. And so I think that there was just like someone like Alvin Bragg, you know, he’s got a lot of left-wing voters that are like just do something against Trump. And so he does this, the dumb hush money case, which was many years ago, outside the statute of limitations. And then, even if you’re going to do it, it was misdemeanors that he’s converting into felonies. And it’s like, okay, if you were just a normal person in Manhattan, would they have brought that case? And I think the answer to that question is 100% no. So when people see that there’s something like that Bragg case that was unique to Trump, you know, I think he gets sympathy as a result of that going forward. Now I don’t know how independent voters view that stuff, but certainly with core Republicans, you know, they see a corrupt prosecutor.

HH: Okay, so my last question for you, Governor, you deployed in Iraq with the SEALs as their legal advisor. You know they do a hotwash after every mission. You’ve been at this for a year and a half now. What errors did you make that you’re willing to say I shouldn’t have done this, but I’m going to correct it going forward and I’m going to do well in March?

RD: Well, look, I mean I think that you know, presidential campaigns are a lot about media. Like you know, I spent a lot of time on the ground in Iowa, and it’s good. And when you meet people, you convert them. But there’s just so many voters out there that you’ve got to do. And I came in not really doing as much media. I should have just been blanketing. I should have gone on all the corporate shows. I should have gone on everything. I started doing that as we got into the end of the summer, and we did it. But we had an opportunity, I think, to come out of the gate and do that and reach a much broader folk. Now, I’m everywhere. I mean, I’ll show up wherever. I committed to do the debate tonight on WMUR and ABC in New Hampshire. I’m the only one that’s willing to debate. I’ve done these televised town halls. I go out and take questions from voters. You know, I think that’s good. I’m the only one that’s not at this point running a basement campaign. Biden’s running a basement campaign. Trump won’t debate, won’t take questions from voters. And now, Haley won’t debate and won’t take questions from voters.

HH: Governor, last quick question. I will offer whoever the nominee is, because I am neutral, an hour a week on the radio for 475 stations. Will you take that offer if you’re the nominee?

RD: Yeah, and you know what I’d like to do, too, is if you want to open up for questions from your audience, I’d be happy to come and field questions from the audience. I’ll tell you, I’ve enjoyed that part of this process to just talk to American citizens, voters that really care about the future of this country. And you know notice a huge difference between the questions that, the kind of the New York media ask…

HH: Amen.

RD: …versus what individual voters ask. That was a good part of this process. I wish that had more weight in terms of getting support, but it was really fun.

HH: Thank you, Governor Ron DeSantis. Keep coming back. We’ll talk to you throughout March as your campaign continues. Thank you.

RD: Bye.

End of interview.