0:00

Thanks for listening to the time I'll review with Hugh

0:03

Hewitt podcast, bringing to you the best voices

0:05

on the storage initiatives that

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matter. Helping make it all possible as

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the generous partnership with the Pepperdine graduate

0:11

school of public policy. Here's another

0:13

piece I'll trust you enjoy. Leadership

0:16

is so hard to find in

0:18

today's America. Florida

0:20

is a blueprint or you could say it's a red

0:23

print for the rest of

0:25

the nation. Whether it

0:27

be holding Disney to

0:29

a transparent standard,

0:31

getting rid of critical race theory, not

0:34

mandating the vaccine, functioning

0:37

schools, not just functioning

0:39

schools, but flourishing schools, a booming economy.

0:43

Incredible achievements

0:46

across the board on educational issues,

0:51

anti crime bills that

0:53

are being passed actually hold criminals accountable.

0:55

It's one thing after the other and

0:58

Florida has done such an exceptional job

1:01

every time I see something

1:04

that happens in Florida. Myself's question, why are other Republicans

1:06

not doing this? Well, joining us now is

1:08

America's governor, an author of the

1:10

new book that you could find at DeSantis

1:13

dot com, The Courage to Be Free. Governor,

1:15

Ron DeSantis, governor, welcome back to the program.

1:17

Hey, thanks for having

1:18

me. So governor, tell us about your

1:20

new book.

1:22

Well, the courage to be free is

1:25

answering the question. Kinda I'm kinda how

1:27

did Florham the focus of freedom

1:29

in the country and even around the world

1:31

people it'll have come over the last few years.

1:34

And we lay out, want our approach

1:36

to leadership, And then lot of

1:38

the issues that we tackled and then

1:40

the results that we were introduced, you

1:42

know, I got elected, Charlie, you remember

1:44

twenty eighteen, B two

1:46

thousand votes. I was

1:49

forty years old, taken the helm of the third

1:51

largest state in the country. And a lot of

1:53

the advice, listen, You barely

1:55

want trim your sales. You

1:57

gotta be careful, you know, about what you're

1:59

doing. And and I rejected that advice

2:01

because my view was I may have gotten

2:03

fifty percent of the vote, but I earn one hundred

2:06

percent of the executive power, and I

2:08

intend to use it to be able to advance

2:10

the best interest Florida and to fulfill the

2:12

promises I made to the people that elected

2:14

me. So we studied all the

2:16

different constitutional provisions in

2:18

Florida statutory. So had keen

2:20

sense of the pressure points, how

2:23

the governor can act unilaterally? What

2:25

do I need the legislature with? What can I

2:27

do to local? Officials. You know, we

2:29

remove bad election officials and

2:31

soros backed prosecutors and all these things.

2:34

So we did that because as a

2:36

as a governor, you're not just able

2:38

to snap your fingers. You've got to put an agenda

2:40

through constitutional checks and balances.

2:42

And so we were able to do that. We

2:44

also said, We're gonna lead by

2:46

conviction. I never took a poll

2:49

because the poll's not important

2:51

about what people think initially. What's

2:53

important is if you set the vision

2:55

and produce results, you can get people

2:58

to join your side. And

3:00

then finally, we said we're gonna lead on

3:02

offense. Because too many Republicans sit

3:04

back and they let the media define

3:07

the terms of the debate, they get take

3:10

pots shots from the media, and what I did is

3:12

I'm going out there, I'm gonna be making the

3:14

news, I'm gonna be leading these issues,

3:16

and I think it makes it very difficult for

3:18

them to to hit you properly. And,

3:21

really, it's like the best defense is sometimes

3:23

a good offense. So we did all those things,

3:25

took on all the issues, And then we ended

3:28

up winning not by thirty two thousand votes,

3:30

but one point five million votes. We

3:32

took a state that had a decade until I

3:34

became governor of one point

3:36

races, whether it's president or governor,

3:39

and we turned it into nearly twenty point

3:41

win that took every Democrat

3:44

out of statewide office. We have a hundred

3:46

percent Republicans in statewide office

3:48

in Florida for the first time since reconstruction.

3:51

We have super majorities now in the Florida

3:53

legislature later, and we won twenty nine

3:55

of thirty four school board races

3:58

that we that we got involved in. And so

4:00

this was not just me

4:02

that had success This was top

4:04

to

4:04

bottom. The state of Florida now,

4:07

the Democratic Party is basically little

4:09

more than a rotten carcass on the side of

4:11

the road. And as you mentioned, it

4:13

used to be a total battleground state, you know, one

4:15

or two points, and you expanded

4:18

it. People were wondering, hey, where did the red wave

4:20

go? Well, it happened in Florida. And

4:22

not just on the state level, but members of

4:24

Congress on a Paulina Luna benefited from

4:27

that. I do not think that there would have been

4:29

a Republican majority if it wasn't

4:31

a, for your courage to stand

4:33

up on the bad maps that were first offered

4:35

to say, hey, we just want fairness and then

4:37

b, actually the red wave that occurred

4:40

in Florida, but that's an incredible transformation

4:42

from thirty two thousand votes to one point three

4:44

million votes. Republicans are kinda

4:46

going through a soul searching moment. If

4:49

you were to just offer a public vision,

4:51

which is what your book is about, the courage to be

4:53

free, what should Republicans learn

4:55

from Florida's success where other

4:57

states floundered and had lackluster and

4:59

mediocre results in the midterms?

5:02

Well, one of the themes of the book, particularly

5:04

early on, before I became governor, was

5:06

just how kind of the entrenched DC

5:09

Republican Party was just out of touch

5:12

with our voter base, and it left

5:14

a lot of them disappointed And

5:16

in in the left, a lot of them demoralized. And

5:18

so I think what we did in Florida is

5:21

the people that are our core supporters when

5:24

you tell them you're gonna do something, follow

5:27

through and do it. And when they see

5:29

you doing and delivering on what you say you're

5:31

gonna do, man, they got your back. They're

5:33

gonna be out there. They're gonna be

5:35

flocking to the polls. And so you

5:37

really've gotta be able to do that. Now, you

5:39

also do that in a way that wins

5:41

the argument with kind of independence in

5:44

in the middle of the electorate. And we want independence

5:46

in Florida by eighteen points. Wow. And

5:48

so whether it was COVID, whether

5:51

it was education, crime, all these

5:53

things, we decisively won the argument.

5:55

But you know, what we also ended up doing

5:57

is we demoralized the Democrat

6:00

base because, you know, some of their voters

6:02

had to acknowledge Florida's doing okay.

6:04

The governor's doing okay. And so it's not that

6:07

a lot of them came and voted for me, you

6:09

know, but some of them just stayed home because they

6:11

knew that what the democrats were offering

6:13

wasn't better So we did all those

6:15

things, but I think the root of it is,

6:17

you know, some of these entrenched DC

6:20

centric, whether it's consultants or other

6:22

type of stuff, they're typically gonna

6:25

give you a bad advice. And the fact that I didn't

6:27

take a single poll in four

6:29

years and went from winning by thirty two

6:31

thousand to one point five

6:32

million, should tell you that

6:35

following that advice is usually

6:37

not necessary and indeed it can

6:39

be harmful. So if it's not polls, then walk

6:41

us through then what is how

6:43

do you make the decisions? Is it instinct? Is it

6:45

obviously some experience? Do you have a council of

6:48

people around you? I'm just curious

6:50

because if it's not then public polls, you

6:52

know, something is dictating or or is it just like,

6:54

hey, I'm gonna do the right thing and

6:56

we're gonna just keep fighting. Well,

6:59

I think it's either it's a combination of things.

7:01

I mean, some of it is just instinct. I

7:03

mean, here I am as governor and

7:05

so you look at things like our fight with Disney on

7:07

parents rights and education. I'm

7:09

obviously judging this stuff based

7:11

on being a governor, but I'm also a dad.

7:14

And I've got 24A6A4A2

7:16

year old at home. And I'm sensitive

7:19

to some of the influences that we can

7:21

see in some of these schools around the country.

7:23

I think it's wrong that a parent would have to

7:26

worry about some of the stuff like

7:28

gender ideology being their kid's second

7:30

grade classroom So some of it is just

7:32

personal experience. Some of it is like, I

7:34

have a foundation of what

7:36

I envisioned for a free society based

7:38

on understanding our constitutional tradition.

7:41

Now I think one of the differences now between

7:44

maybe even twenty years ago, but certainly

7:46

when someone like President Reagan came on the scene,

7:48

in nineteen eighty is that, yes,

7:50

government is a problem, particularly

7:52

the federal administrative state and the weaponized

7:55

bureaucracies, But you also have

7:57

a woke agenda being pursued by

8:00

big corporations -- Yes. -- universities,

8:02

all these other institutions in society

8:04

And so my view is the free state

8:07

of Florida means at least in

8:09

part that we're gonna protect your freedom

8:11

from having the pathologies of the left imposed

8:14

on you whether it be through

8:16

legislation or whether it be

8:18

through kind of this extra constitutional power

8:21

that seems to be wielded. And then finally,

8:24

and this was really important during COVID. You

8:26

know, I dig in there and kinda take

8:28

take the data in or

8:30

read the different things that I need to read

8:33

so that I'm able to to make decisions.

8:35

I think that you you do have good people that

8:37

are around you that can provide you that, but I don't

8:39

think that that's a substitute for

8:41

you kind of grappling with it yourself

8:43

and then asking the tough

8:45

questions. I just wanna narrow

8:47

in on that. You've been one of the few courageous

8:49

leaders on a state level to actually

8:51

understand how big corporations and

8:54

government get in bed together. This

8:57

is something that is a new development in the conservative

8:59

movement because typically, especially, yes,

9:01

sometimes in Florida, kind of representing, you know, the

9:03

big chamber of commerce. You don't care about that. You represent

9:05

your voters. Just tell us a little bit

9:07

about the Disney thing, what you learned

9:09

in that entire chapter, and how that

9:12

could be applied to conservatism more broadly

9:14

across the

9:14

country. Well, I think Florida, when

9:17

I became governor, you know, was really

9:19

driven by the chamber's agenda. You

9:21

know, some of this stuff was positive, like, you

9:23

know, better legal climate, what had you.

9:26

But I think I've really changed that

9:29

to where, yes, just because you're a corporation

9:31

and you're quote private, if you're gonna

9:34

try to be exercising public power,

9:36

you know, we're gonna take that very seriously and

9:38

we're gonna fight back, particularly when

9:40

it's in jurious to education

9:43

in our children. And so the Disney thing

9:45

was a situation where, yes, they

9:47

were getting involved and trying to tank bill

9:49

that was very important a lot parents. Yes.

9:52

They were advocating things in

9:54

Burbank about their programming and

9:56

sexualizing their programming. Which as

9:58

a parent I found very, very problematic,

10:01

but they're doing that while getting

10:03

subsidies from the state of Florida. They

10:05

had their own government given to them

10:07

in the nineteen sixties, and so

10:09

they were exempt from laws, had

10:12

big tax breaks, we're able to

10:14

do all kinds of things that no other

10:16

individual or company can do in Florida.

10:18

So we had to make the decision, okay,

10:21

how can they do that and have

10:23

all that? And then turn around

10:25

and use the subsidies to advocate against

10:27

us. So we we Nick

10:29

that. They're they no longer have

10:31

self governing status, and there's a new

10:33

sheriff in town in the state of Florida. Bless you

10:35

for that So governor, your

10:38

blueprint in Florida

10:40

has amazing success and you contrast

10:42

that with what governor

10:44

Newsom has and has not done

10:47

in California. It's not because of the

10:49

weather. That's what they always blame. They say, oh,

10:51

you know, people are moving to the sunbelt. Only

10:53

because of the weather. Now they're leaving California to

10:55

other states. Can you just compare in contrast

10:57

over four years? Newsom

11:00

DeSantis, Florida versus California.

11:02

And you had a direct message to Gavin

11:04

Newsom, what would that be? Well,

11:06

it's interesting. So California for

11:08

the entire history of the state

11:10

until four years ago had

11:12

always gained population. It

11:14

was viewed when I was growing up in the eighties

11:16

and nineties, it was viewed as the place people went.

11:19

To experience the American dream. And

11:21

now what you've had in the last four years is

11:23

you've had a massive hemorrhaging of people.

11:26

They have net population loss

11:28

in the hundreds and hundreds of thousands.

11:31

Meanwhile, Florida is gaining

11:33

the most net population, and we're

11:35

the fastest growing state And here's

11:37

the thing that I think is interesting.

11:40

When I was growing up in Florida, I never saw California

11:42

license plate. I never because people would never

11:44

leave California. I mean, it just wasn't you

11:46

do. We started to see it when I became

11:48

governor, particularly in response to

11:51

the California Newsom COVID policies.

11:54

You start seeing California life to Florida.

11:56

lot of Florida voters freaked out because

11:59

they're thinking about, oh my gosh, what are these Californians

12:01

gonna do in terms of their voting? Well, it turned

12:03

out a lot of them were people that

12:05

think more like us who just had

12:07

enough. And yes, part of it was the

12:09

lockdowns where he's locking

12:11

down his people, his businesses,

12:14

then he's going and eating without

12:16

a mask at the French laundry, and a lot

12:18

of people got upset about that. But

12:20

it's also the crime They

12:22

let people out of prison. You have district

12:24

attorneys elected with support from people

12:26

like George Soros who say they're just

12:28

not going to prosecute criminals. You if

12:30

you're walking in LA and you get mugged,

12:32

the chance that they hold that person accountable

12:34

is very very low. They just release them.

12:37

And then he can do it all over again. And

12:39

then, of course, you've had economic policies

12:41

to where they have like a twenty five or thirty

12:43

billion dollar deficit right now

12:45

Florida, we have a record twenty plus billion

12:48

dollar surplus. And so the

12:50

results speak for themselves. People

12:52

vote with their feed, and it's interesting

12:55

You know, we get a lot of comparisons with New York

12:57

because New York and us are relatively

13:00

close in population. We've got a few million

13:02

more people now than they do. But even with

13:04

a few million more people, Charlie, New

13:06

York State's budget is twice

13:09

the size of the budget. Of the state

13:11

of Florida. And yet, our services

13:13

are better, our roads are better,

13:15

we have higher performing k through twelve,

13:18

higher performing public, higher education,

13:20

and no state income tax. So where is

13:22

all this money going? That they're

13:25

spending? And how come it's not helping

13:27

the quality of life for the people that live

13:29

in New York state?

13:31

And some of the numbers here,

13:33

Florida population twenty two million, New York

13:35

nineteen point four, Florida's

13:37

budget is a hundred and Townhall

13:40

Florida's a hundred ten billion, New York is two hundred

13:42

twenty one billion. Mhmm. Florida's education

13:44

budget is twenty four billion, New York education

13:46

budget, thirty nine billion, and their schools

13:48

are crummy and garbage compared to Florida.

13:51

Florida's welfare budget is twenty nine billion.

13:53

New York's welfare budget is seventy nine billion. So

13:55

they're spending more, they're taxing, more, they're getting

13:57

less and they have less people than Florida.

14:00

Going into two thousand twenty four governor, I think

14:02

the story of the contrast between states

14:05

is a winning message that

14:07

can maybe heal the country and

14:09

also make Republicans victorious

14:12

your thoughts.

14:13

Well, I mean, if you look about the New York governor's

14:15

race in twenty twenty two, I mean, Lee's

14:17

Elvin came, was like a seven point

14:20

spread in a state that has, I think, three times

14:22

more Democrats than Republicans. And

14:24

honestly, if you took all the Republicans that

14:26

moved to Florida for the last four years and

14:28

let him vote for Zoe, but even closer.

14:31

And so that's telling me that,

14:33

yeah, you have the woke left and you have

14:35

some people that are just never gonna see the

14:37

light. But, you know, you've got a lot of people

14:40

who have voted for Democrats in the past

14:42

who realized we can't let the

14:44

criminals run the run the streets

14:47

We can't have children

14:49

in school being told that they were born

14:51

in the wrong body. We can't

14:53

have these and COVID mandates

14:55

that even today, you have universities

14:58

in blue states that are forcing

15:00

the college students to get booster shots

15:03

after all we know they're still doing

15:05

that. And so I think we probably

15:07

have a better opportunity than we've ever

15:09

had. Maybe since nineteen eighty, to

15:11

get people to vote for our side

15:14

who've not necessarily done that in

15:16

the past. Part of it is I think we have records

15:18

of success, you know, not just Florida. We're proud

15:20

of Florida, but you look at what some of the

15:22

governors have done in some of the other Republican

15:24

states. There's a lot of great stories to tell.

15:27

And it really does go down to

15:29

the fact that are you based on

15:31

solid tried and true principles

15:33

are you indulging in this woke in sanity?

15:36

You cannot show me one jurisdiction,

15:39

a city or a state. And this country

15:41

governed by woke ideology that

15:44

has done better as a result. Most

15:46

of the time, not only do they do worse,

15:49

The whole society starts to fray

15:51

like San Francisco and Los Angeles,

15:53

Seattle. That's right. The courage to be free,

15:55

Florida's blueprint for America's revival, America's

15:58

governor, Ron DeSantis has

16:00

really showed us how we can win in two thousand

16:02

twenty four and beyond

16:03

governor. Thank you so much. Talk to you soon.

16:06

Godspeed. Yep. Thanks

16:08

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