DeSantis Campaign Press Release - ICYMI: Ron DeSantis on Newsmax: "We'll rip the woke out [out of the military] on day one"

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In an interview on Newsmax this afternoon, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told Chris Salcedo that putting an end to wokeness in the military and securing the border are both "day one" issues. Governor DeSantis also discussed his take on the disastrous consequences of Bidenomics and shared his thoughts on the issue of cocaine being found in the White House.

Watch the interview HERE.

On the rise of wokeness in the U.S. military:

"I had the fortune of volunteering to serve in the Navy, serving in Iraq, serving alongside a lot of great patriots. Wearing the cloth of your country is something that's very meaningful to me, and I know for other veterans. And yet, for the first time in my life, I have veterans coming up to me all the time, saying, you know, I don't know that I'd want my kid or grandkid to join today's military because, exactly what you said, it's become a Petri dish for social experimentation. They're putting political fads over military readiness. Morale is in the tank, recruiting is at a generational low because people want to join a military that's mission focused. They don't want to join the military to be a cog in an overall social experiment. So we'll rip the woke out on day one. And here's the thing, China is absolutely a threat to us. Biden has been very weak on China, obviously, he's had financial dealings, his family's had, with them. So they're being very, very weak with respect to China. I would like to do more with our military to be able to combat China in the Pacific because I think we can deter them. However, you can't pour more resources into it until you fix the underlying culture. So that's a day one issue. There is going to be major changes in all the armed services when I become president. I can tell you this, veterans around the country are going to rally to that, and you're going to see people going to be more willing to sign up for the military as a result of getting us focused back to the basics."

On securing the border as president:

"Day one as president we'll declare a national emergency, we'll mobilize all available resources, including the military, to stop the invasion at the southern border. Yes, we will construct the border wall because I think that that's important to have. But we're going to reestablish the sovereignty of this country. We are not going to allow bogus asylum claims to overrun our border like it's happened under Biden. And in terms of states, we're going to empower states to enforce immigration law. Texas is putting up barriers, they're putting up barbed wire because they're trying to defend their sovereignty. We have a federal government now that's opposing them doing that. I want the states and locals to be partners with us so we can enforce immigration law. But I think the thing that we're going to do that no one has been willing to do is recognize... I was actually down in Arizona a few weeks before we announced our plan, and I was in a place where we did have the border wall, there were major steel beams. This is really good stuff, right? Well, turns out the cartels will cut through the steel beams, smuggling product, and our federal government does nothing to stop them. And so what I've said is we're going to have rules of engagement on that border. If the cartels are cutting through our border wall to try to move product, that's going to be the last thing they do because they're going to end up stone cold dead. We are going to use force at the border to be able to defend the American people. And we are going to lean in against the cartels directly, not just in terms of what they're doing on the ground, but also interdicting the precursor chemicals to fentanyl that are being brought in by sea from China into these Mexican ports. So I think it requires an all hands on deck approach. At the end of the day, the thing that I saw down there that was, that stuck with me was just the humiliation that as an American, we don't even have control over our own country. We've ceded our border to Mexican drug cartels. That is pathetic. And that is not, I think, what the American people want."

On the discovery of cocaine in the White House:

"What came to mind for me is, we've seen for over two years, the Biden administration blowing it on a whole host of issues. I guess this means that's a little bit even more literal than we had thought previously. But isn't it interesting how you have this cocaine there? I don't see the FBI and the DOJ mobilizing and doing like a real serious investigation of this. I kind of feel like if they were a Republican White House, that you'd have swarms of DEA and FBI agents trying to get to the bottom of who brought that into the White House. I think with this, they're just treating the Biden administration with kid gloves. And unfortunately, that's what we've come to expect out of this federal government that they just have two standards of how they pursue the law."

On Bidenomics:

"Bidenomics is very simple: you pay more for less. At the end of the day, it represents a rationalization for a declining standard of living for hardworking Americans. And I think you're--what you pointed out with home prices is exactly right. Given where interest rates are now, getting a traditional three bedroom, two bath house for a family is unattainable for a lot of people now. The amount you're paying in mortgage payments has gone up dramatically, just since Biden has become president. You also have automobiles that are increasingly becoming unattainable. And Biden wants to put all these green mandates and force you into an electric vehicle, which is going to make it even more difficult. And of course, everybody's grocery bill has gone up dramatically. So when they say inflation peaked at say 9%, and now it's quote, a lot less at 5%, you know, that only captures some of this. There's a lot more that's gone into this. People have paid way more than 9% year over year. And at the end of the day, Bidenomics, with the inflation, that's an invisible crushing tax on every single American. The wealthy people do fine on it because they have financial assets. It's really those hard-working people that get swamped. I don't know why anybody would want to sign up for four more years of that."