DeSantis Campaign Press Release - ICYMI: Ron DeSantis on America's Newsroom

"This government is spending way too much money. They've locked in the COVID-era levels of spending, which are totally unsustainable."

Tallahassee, FL - Ron DeSantis today joined Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino live on Fox News' America's Newsroom. The highlights are below.

Watch the full interview HERE.

On how Congress should use the power of the purse to hold out-of-control federal agencies accountable:

This government is spending way too much money. They've locked in the COVID-era levels of spending, which are totally unsustainable. So they should absolutely have a big fight over righting that ship. But then you also have the issue of--they're funding really bad policies. So for example, Biden's border policies are causing a massive influx of illegal aliens. They're causing a massive influx of fentanyl, human trafficking, sex trafficking. The Department of Justice and the FBI with the weaponization--when there's memos circulating, targeting observant Catholics as potential terrorists, when the FBI has targeted parents going to school board meetings, the power of the purse is really the way that you hold those agencies accountable. So some of the guys in the House like Chip Roy, who are raising the alarm about this, I think are right. And I think part of the reason our bureaucracy is so out of control, and this deep state has developed like this is because Congress has not been willing to use the power of the purse to discipline these agencies.

On how he kept Florida free and open during COVID:

I think it was pretty clear early on in COVID that Fauci was misfiring. He was elevated to where his pronouncements were basically viewed as gospel around the country. And we rejected that. And we fought when we reopened the state. He criticized us when we had kids in school, first state in the country to have all school districts. He criticized us when we said no vaccine mandates, they criticized that. So we had to chart the course. And obviously, the results speak for themselves because people flooded into Florida. Those first few weeks, we followed some of the federal guidelines. I've always said that. But then I was looking at the data myself. And I made the decision that we were going to chart a separate course. And so we did that. And clearly Florida boomed as a result, but I would note this because this is important, you know, Donald Trump's reelection campaign in October of 2020 was running ads bragging with Fauci saying, 'Trump did everything I told them to do.' They were putting that out, they were bragging about it. And then on January 19 2021, Donald Trump's last day as president, he gave Fauci a Presidential commendation. So those were wrong to do that.

On how he'll fight COVID authoritarianism as President:

Looking forward, we need accountability for what went wrong because those people in positions of authority at the CDC, Fauci--though they lied about lockdown school closures, mask mandates--they were wrong. It did a lot of damage around this country. And I know that because, the people that were harmed, a lot of them came to Florida and would tell us about it. So we need a reckoning so that this never happens to our country again, and we instituted permanent protections in Florida against mask mandates, against all this stuff. People said, 'Oh, you're talking about old issues.' Well you see they're trying to bring it back. Montgomery County, Maryland School District, forcing students to wear KN95 masks during the school day. We know that doesn't work. So we've got to clear house in these medical bureaucracies. We need evidence-based medicine, not narrative-based policies.