DeSantis Campaign Press Release - ICYMI: Ron DeSantis on Meet the Press

"It's not about the past...it's ultimately about how do you get in and reverse the country's decline."

Tallahassee, FL - Ron DeSantis joined NBC's Kristen Welker live on Meet the Press today. The highlights are below.

Watch the full interview HERE.

On how he will reverse the decline of our nation:

Here's the thing, ultimately, it's not about the past. It's not about all these other issues. It's ultimately about how do you get in and reverse the country's decline? How do we get the country back on a strong plane so that we lower prices for people, get the border secured, deal with crime in the inner cities? We need a strong leader to be able to do that, someone that can win and someone that can actually bring this in. So that's the message that we're bringing to people in Iowa, New Hampshire. And you know, when you're on the ground, you see the support building, we're doing what we need to do to be able to get the job done.

On how President DeSantis would handle the war in Israel:

I would support Israel's right to end this problem once and for all. Obviously, we have an interest in the hostages being rescued. I would work with them. I would look at the intelligence to see what our options are there. And of course, we have a strong interest there. But Israel is facing an enemy that wants nothing less than another holocaust. They would eliminate Israel from the map if they could, Hamas would drive every Jew into the sea, so I think it's important for the United States, for one of our strongest allies, that we stand with them publicly and privately in word and in deed because I think if they do anything else then eliminate Hamas entirely, they're just going to face these types of attacks again in the future.

On how he has acted to protect Jewish Floridians:

We have acted very, very swiftly and decisively. I mean, for example, after this attack, we dispatched state law enforcement working in conjunction with locals to protect our Jewish institutions, our Jewish day schools, our synagogues. There have been arrests that have been made with people that were threatening to do harm to our Jewish community. And we have some of the strongest laws on the books from anti-BDS to financial support for security of anywhere in the country. We're also one of the states that's had probably the most in-migration of Jewish residents, and we have the second highest Israeli-American population in the entire country. So, people vote with their feet. They see the type of environment we've created here that's been very strong and positive. And name me, Kristen, another governor who scrambled planes to Israel to bring them back, bring Americans back from the war zone. We did that. We got that job done. Almost 700 people we've rescued, and we're proud of stepping up and leading on that.

On decertifying collegiate pro-Hamas groups in Florida:

This is not cancel culture. This group, they themselves said in the aftermath of the Hamas attack, that they don't just stand in solidarity that they are part of this Hamas movement. And so you have a right to go out and demonstrate, but you can't provide material support to terrorism. They've linked themselves to Hamas. And so we absolutely decertified them, they should not get one red cent of taxpayer dollars. And we also have strong laws in Florida against fundraising for groups like Hamas, and we are enforcing those vigorously. It's not a First Amendment issue. That's a material support to terrorism issue.