DeSantis Campaign Press Release - ICYMI: Governor DeSantis in Columbia, S.C.

"I have heard it on the ground in every one of my visits to South Carolina since entering this race — Joe Biden is failing the people of this state."

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Today, Governor DeSantis visited Columbia, South Carolina, to register as a candidate in the presidential primary and to unveil his policy to restore our military.

Governor DeSantis started the morning at the South Carolina Republican Party headquarters, where he filed paperwork to officially enter the Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, making him the first GOP candidate to file in any state. Governor DeSantis was joined by South Carolina leaders State Senator Josh Kimbrell, State Representative Chris Murphy, and South Carolina GOP Chair Drew McKissick.

"I have heard it on the ground in every one of my visits to South Carolina since entering this race — Joe Biden is failing the people of this state," Governor DeSantis said. "I'm excited to be the first Republican candidate to file candidacy paperwork in South Carolina as we continue our mission to reverse American decline by rejecting Bidenomics, stopping the invasion at the border, combatting communist China, and ensuring a better future for our children. Help is on the way."

He then sat down with pastors for a discussion of issues such as protecting religious liberty and parents' rights.

Later in the day, Governor DeSantis held a press conference in Columbia, S.C. where he unveiled his plan for a "Mission First Military." This was the governor's second policy announcement of the campaign, following the plan he released last month to stop the invasion and secure the border.

"There was no greater honor than knowing I was wearing the cloth of my country when I served in the military, but our nation's once-proud fighting force has been infected and paralyzed by a political agenda." Governor Ron DeSantis said. "It is time to rip the woke out of the military and return it to its core mission. We must restore a sense of confidence, conviction, and patriotic duty to our institutions — and that begins with our military."

Watch the full remarks HERE.

Read Ron DeSantis' plan to restore our military HERE.

Governor DeSantis ended the day with an interview on CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper, where he talked about his new plan for a mission first military.

Watch a clip from the interview HERE.

On the problem with military recruiting:

"Why do we have the worst recruiting that we've had since the Vietnam conflict? Why have great warriors been driven off, such as with the COVID-19 shot mandates? These are people that had been performing admirably. A lot of them had COVID, they had natural immunity, they were told to take this shot or leave. I think you've had a big problem with morale [and] you clearly have a problem with recruiting. And at these levels, everybody has acknowledged these recruiting levels are at a crisis. Why is that the case? I think it's because people see the military losing its way, not focusing on the mission, and focusing on a lot of these other things, which we see that in other aspects of society as well. People want to join the military because they think it's something different. And I think some of the civilian leaders in the military are trying to have the military mimic corporate American academia. That's ultimately not going to work."

On wokeness in the military:

"A lot of people who railed against wokeness can't even define it, so I think it's a sense of, you know, this is not something that's holding true to the core martial values that make the military unique. And I can tell you, the veterans, you don't have to look far and wide. Go to a VFW hall, go to an American Legion. There's huge amount of concern about the direction that the military is going in. And here's the thing, things like DEI and all that stuff, it hasn't worked in other aspects of society. It very well may be on the constitutional chopping block in light of the Supreme Court's decision on racial discrimination in higher education. And so it's not a model that I think is going to be successful in the military. So we're going to do what has been successful in the past, [and] I think you're going to see better recruiting as a result."