DeSantis Campaign Press Release - ICYMI: Ron DeSantis on The Hugh Hewitt Show

"We need order, we need smooth government operations, and we need to deliver results. That's what we've done in Florida for the last five years, and you see the contrast."

Tallahassee, FL - Ron DeSantis joined Hugh Hewitt from Salem Radio's Hugh Hewitt Show. Read the highlights below.

Listen here.

On Florida's success versus DC's disfunction:

It's a strong contrast to how we do business in Florida. I think you see a lot of theater, a lot of chaos; I'm not sure it ever leads to any results. Whereas in Florida, everything we do is calculated to deliver outcomes and to create a better life for the people down here. I also think, just reflecting on, you had like, what five or six members, Republicans joined all these Democrats, you know, we were supposed to have a red wave in 2022. And that didn't happen. It happened in Florida, and we delivered four additional Republicans. But that was one of the best environments to run in for Republicans probably since like the 1940s, and we totally muffed it. And I think that this is part of the follow on from that. But we just need leadership. I mean, we need to put leaders out there, deliver for the folks that we represent. So I think that we need order, we need smooth government operations, and we need to deliver results. That's what we've done in Florida for the last five years, and you see the contrast.

On the threat of the Chinese Communist Party:

We need a whole of society approach to fending off the CCP. This is our top threat. This decade will be the decisive decade. This is a military confrontation, perhaps, technological, economic, cultural -- all of those things. We need to have national policy geared towards fending off the CCP. And I think that Washington's policy, the DC kind of smart set, they've had all bark and very little bite with respect to China. I think on the current course, China will surpass us as we get into next decade. So some of the things we're going to do -- you need more hard power in the Indo-Pacific. We are going to have a naval build up. We'll shoot for 355 ships after the first term, and we'll get to 385 ships after term two. But, I think even more importantly than that, reinvigorating our defense industrial base and our shipbuilding capacity so that within 20 years, we could get close to 600 ships. I think that we had an opportunity when COVID hit to really mobilize the country behind a common purpose of fending off the CCP. And we could have started doing some of this naval build up there. But that's really, really important. And so we're going to do that, but I think everything we do is going to be viewed through the prism of how do we counter the China threat? Obviously, there's other threats in the world, and we'll deal with those. But just like Reagan dealt with the Soviets above all else, we need our grand strategy to focus on China above all else.

On the importance of domestic energy production:

We can stop empowering Russia through a dysfunctional energy policy. You can have the Green New Deal -- I don't want that; I think it's bad -- but just understand, when you go in Biden's direction, you are helping Russia, you're helping Iran, you're helping Venezuela, and you're also helping China. So we put out, in Midland, Texas a couple of weeks ago, our plan for American energy dominance. We're going to choose Midland over Moscow, we're going to choose the Marcellus over the Mullahs, and we're going to choose Bakken over Beijing. Biden is effectively funding both sides of that conflict. His energy policy helps Moscow. He's also relieved sanctions on Iran. And then, of course, through the 6 billion. They're very much invested in helping Russia with all those things. But I think we have the economic levers to be able to weaken Russia, and that's just beyond the current conflict. That is what they rely on. And Biden's energy policy will make Russia more powerful. My energy policy will weaken Russia.

On providing an alternative to Bidenomics:

I think they need to be discussing the economy, particularly why we're in this mess. I think it's important to point out it all started with COVID in March of 2020. There was massive borrowing, printing, and spending under both Republicans and Democrats. That's led to the interest rates being where they are, and it's put a lot of people in a world of hurt. We obviously need to reverse those policies. We need to discuss Biden's attempt to impose an ideological control over the economy, whether that's the Green New Deal, whether that's other things that they're doing in all aspects of the economy. It's bad for freedom, and it's ultimately going to be very bad for our standard of living. We need to talk about having energy independence and energy dominance. We do need to talk about the border and our sovereignty and the fentanyl overdoses that are happening as a result of that. That moderator in the other debate was trying to blame Americans for the fentanyl overdoses. I was shocked that she would even try to do something like that. We need to talk about the growth of the administrative state. How are we going to re-constitutionalize government and end weaponization of agencies like the IRS and the FBI? You know, those are all really, really significant issues that, you know, I run the table nationally, we're going to have a house and senate majority, we're going to have opportunities to get a lot of this stuff done. So we're going to be ready to go on day one.