“There’s two candidates that can win the nomination, Trump and me. And I would say that I’m the only one that can win both the nomination and the general election,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said tonight on the WRN podcast.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis argues that he would be a better president than Donald Trump on spending, personnel, and because he could serve a second term, providing consistency.
Appearing on the Wisconsin Right Now podcast, DeSantis made national news; he ruled out being Trump’s running mate and ruled out Robert F. Kennedy Jr. being his, said that he believes he’s the only GOP candidate who can win the primary AND the general election, and accused the media of creating a false narrative that his campaign is stumbling out of the gate because they fear him.
“I am going to support the Republican nominee,” DeSantis said when asked if he would support Trump if Trump is the nominee. On RFK Jr., DeSantis said he would pick a conservative running mate if he’s the nominee, and RFK Jr. is a Democrat on the “bulk” of issues. But he said there are places where he and RFK Jr. align, such as opposition to Dr. Fauci.
We asked whether he would ever be willing to be Donald Trump’s running mate. He said: “I don’t think so. I don’t think I’m a number two guy. I think I’m a leader, governor of Florida, I’ve accomplished a lot. I think I could do more staying there than being VP, which doesn’t really have any authority.” We asked him to name two people he might pick as his running mate if he’s the nominee, and he declined to say, asking WRN who we think he should pick.
DeSantis appeared on the podcast of Wisconsin Right Now on July 11. WRN has also extended an invite to Trump to come on the podcast and have the same opportunity, but we haven’t heard back yet.
DeSantis also said that Trump should acknowledge he did not get COVID right because he empowered Dr. Fauci. According to DeSantis, on the issue of picking the right personnel, he said he picked a surgeon general in Florida who was the “anti-Fauci,” and fought against mask and vaccine mandates and to keep kids in schools. He also said that Trump appointed a “woke general” (Mark Milley). DeSantis promised to refocus the military, which he said has been politicized and subjected to woke ideology.
We asked DeSantis if he would pardon Trump if Trump is convicted and he’s president. He said, “We are going to end weaponization of government, and as part of that we are going to be issuing pardons.” He said there will be a process for people to apply, and people who were treated unfairly as part of a “two-tiered justice system” would be looked at favorably for pardons. He noted that Trump maintains his innocence so he thinks it’s “presumptuous to presume under that situation that he would be convicted.”
We asked DeSantis to specify the ways he differs on policy questions from Trump. He said:
- “I can serve two terms,” DeSantis responded. He said President Joe Biden reversed almost all of the good things Trump did on day one except the courts and tax bill.
- DeSantis said on the WRN podcast that Milley, the “woke general,” was appointed by Donald Trump. “You will see much better personnel selections with me as president,” DeSantis said.
- DeSantis said on the WRN podcast that he differs from President Trump in his response to COVID, saying, “He turned the country over to Dr. Fauci; I think that was a big mistake.” DeSantis said on the WRN podcast, “I would have fired Fauci because I think Fauci did huge damage to this country.” DeSantis said Trump still says he did everything right, but DeSantis believes the Covid response was a “disaster” because kids were locked down and businesses destroyed, among other issues.
DeSantis also pledged to take the fight to the drug cartels at the U.S./Mexican border with lethal force by the border patrol and military if necessary, to finish Trump’s border wall on “day one,” to declare a national emergency at the border on day one and to oppose birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants.
“I would do the wall better,” DeSantis said on the WRN podcast. “Cartels cut through it. They’re literally bringing product into our country right through the wall.” He said he would use drones and censors and the military or border patrol would engage the cartels with “lethal force” if they see that occurring.
Asked a question from a conservative youth (Jenna Piwowarczyk, a Young America’s Foundation chapter leader) about younger generations erroneously thinking communism and socialism are utopias, DeSantis said that in Florida every year schools are required on Nov. 10 to teach kids about the evils of Communism, Socialism and Leninism. In other states, the education system has ignored the evils and victims of Communism, he said on the WRN podcast.
He criticized transgender surgeries, puberty blockers, and hormones for minors, saying parents are being lied to that their children will commit suicide without them.
DeSantis said “sterilizing kids, mutilating kids” with irreversible procedures and “pumping them with experimental chemicals” as gender dysphoria transgender treatments “is wrong.” He said some physicians are making a fortune and are scaring parents. He said it’s a “lie” when doctors tell parents their kid will commit suicide without these procedures. He said the procedures should be criminal (for minors) and noted he did that in Florida.
DeSantis said in the podcast that he believes the U.S. government should use its leverage to bring sustained peace to Ukraine and Russia, criticizing what he called Biden’s “blank check” that is depleting the Unites States’ weapons reserves from other countries that could use them, like Taiwan.
We asked DeSantis if he supported impeaching Attorney General Merrick Garland and President Biden. With an “honest FBI and federal agencies,” Biden and his family would be “done 10 ways from Sunday” because of the amount of money “flowing into their coffers,” DeSantis said on the WRN podcast. He said it’s “just unbelievable” nothing has happened, calling it a “farce.”
“I’ve endorsed what they’re doing to move forward with Garland,” DeSantis said when asked if Biden and Garland should be impeached.
As for Biden, he said he picked Kamala Harris as a reason, calling her “impeachment insurance.”
DeSantis said he has huge support in the early states, adding “You’ve got to build this.” Of polls showing Trump ahead by a large margin, he said “This is a state-by-state process. There’s not a national primary.”
As for media articles arguing his campaign has gotten off to a sluggish start, DeSantis said, “They go after the person that they fear, and that’s what they’re doing.”
DeSantis said he won 62% of Hispanic voters in Florida, a record after the media said Hispanic voters would desert him after he sent illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard. He said the media are always falsely counting him out.
DeSantis said the media “are trying to create a narrative” that his campaign is stumbling “because they don’t want me to be the nominee.” He said that’s because “they know I’d beat Biden handily.”
