DeSantis Campaign Press Release - ICYMI: Ron DeSantis on the Victor Davis Hanson Show

"American freedom will be eroded if the 21st century becomes a Chinese century."

Tallahassee, FL - Ron DeSantis joined Victor Davis Hanson for an interview on the Victor Davis Hanson Show that aired today. The highlights are below.

Listen to the full interview HERE.

On combatting threats from China and Iran:

Iran has sold China huge amounts of oil. So China is sending money to Iran. Of course, Iran uses those profits to fund terrorism. China's also buying a lot of gas from Russia. They're supporting Russia's ambitions in Eastern Europe. So all of this stuff ultimately goes back where China is playing a role in empowering these belligerent actors. And China's, also, I think a threat for those reasons, but also taking a step back. Their economy is close to a peer economy of ours. You know, I don't think they've caught us yet, but on current paths, it's possible that they will in a decade. Some people say maybe even less than that. Their military may not be a peer with us now, but they're gaining, and they have the second most powerful military in the country... We've got to deny their ability to realize their ambition in the Indo-Pacific, which requires more hard military power, which I will support. We're actually going to lay this out later this week. It does require us to reevaluate this economic relationship and to not be dependent on China for so many important things. And then it requires us to take seriously their power within the United States of America. I mean, for example, in Florida, I've signed laws banning China from buying land in the state of Florida. We don't want them buying farmland, some of these other things. So I think it's going to be a whole of society approach that is going to be necessary so that we remain the world's preeminent power. And it's not just so we beat our chest and anything like that. American freedom will be eroded if the 21st century becomes a Chinese century.

On Israel's right to defend itself from Hamas:

Israel's lived under these rockets for how many years? Now, you have this brutal massacre. Are they just supposed to sit there and have a ceasefire, knowing that these Hamas butchers, they would butcher every single Israeli if they could. That's their ultimate goal. So we need to have moral clarity on this. Israel has every right to defend itself to the hilt. And that means eliminating Hamas as a threat entirely, which yes, it means you're going to have to go into Gaza. They'll have to go into Gaza. They'll have to uproot the tunnels. They're going to have to take out all the terrorist infrastructure. But that's another thing, Victor, that these college campuses and the far left, they act like the Gazans are suffering under, quote, occupation, but Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005. They forcibly removed Israeli citizens from there. It was a very traumatic event, but the idea was let the Gazans do kind of what they wanted. It's actually a very nice stretch of coastline. Did the people of Gaza tried to make the most of that and maybe create like a Singapore on the Mediterranean? No, they elected Hamas. And when people say in the media, oh, well, not every Gazan likes Hamas. Yeah, maybe not. But you know, a lot of them were cheering on October 7 when this happened. And that's just what we're dealing with here. And so I think the administration, to send $100 million in, quote, humanitarian aid, knowing that we'll be commandeered by Hamas, just how quick they are to send that money there, how slow they are to do things to support our own people like our border and all these other issues, it is ideology. This is kind of leftism run amok, I fear.

On shutting down pro-terrorist student groups:

Now on the campuses, I will say if you looked at how Harvard administration responded, Penn, some of these others, it was just horrendous how they did it. If you looked at like the University of Florida's President's statement, and some of our other universities, it was a much different posture. I mean, they were very clear in terms of this was terrorism, this is wrong, there's no moral equivalence. Very clear that they weren't going to let Jewish students, just people just take potshots at them because they're Jewish. And so, I was proud that our universities stepped up and handled it, I think, the way we would want universities to handle it. And probably even 20, 30 years ago, as liberal as some of them were then, I would not have seen, at places like Harvard or Yale, somebody go out and actually make common cause with Hamas terrorists when the blood isn't even dry off these Israeli civilians. Yet, that's what we saw. So in Florida, our chancellor of our university system and our Board of Governors, this Students for Justice for Palestine, they have said, by their own admission, they're not just advocates or cheerleading on Hamas, they are part of this movement. They have said that publicly. And you can say what you want in the United States, but you can't provide any type of support for terrorism. And when they say that they're one in the same with Hamas, that is unacceptable to be on our college campuses. And so those groups are going to be deactivated in the state university system.

On the need to put American interests first:

I think that the DC foreign policy elite, they've stubbed their toe so many times that the proper approach to the world is one through American strength, absolutely, but it cannot go get mired into some of the George W. Bush, kind of, quote, freedom agenda where we were going to do a lot of intervention to promote, you know, more esoteric concepts when applied to some of these other areas. And I'd say the same thing with the neoliberal left. You know, they're hyper-interventionist when it's not obvious that it's in our interests. They want us to try to be, quote, humanitarians. And that just doesn't work. But the notion that somehow somebody like me, who actually has served to these conflicts, I was on House Foreign Affairs for six years, we got involved in all these issues. But I think we did it in a way that we've been vindicated. And I think if you look at what I did back then, I'm the same guy today as I was. We're going to have a strong America. We're going to deter conflict. We're going to ensure that we're identifying the appropriate threats. But we're also going to exercise prudence in how we're wielding American power. And we're not going to get us bogged down in conflicts that ultimately drain our resources for no concrete objective achieved.

On his plan to secure the border and keep terrorists out of America:

We'll declared a national emergency on day one that'll free up resources, I'll send the military there will stop the invasion, we're not going to allow the asylum claims we'll do remain in Mexico, we will build the wall, we will I will actually have Mexico pay for the wall. Now, Mexico is not just going to cough up money. But what you do, the way to realize that promise from Trump in 2016 is to impose fees on the remittances that people send back to Mexico and Central America and all over the world. you'd raise Billy, even a small fee, you'd raise billions of dollars a year, we would be able to construct a wall, we will do that people that come I've said I've pledged that every one that's come in under Biden, we're going to send back we will deport you have to do that if you're not willing to do that, you're never ultimately going to get the situation under control and the amount of people that have come from hostile countries, China, Russia, Iran, other parts of the Middle East, it's been a lot of people, there are people on the terror watch list that have come in. So you absolutely have to do that. And we will do that we'll lean in against the Mexican drug cartels treating them as akin to foreign terrorist organizations authorizing the use of force when they're breaking into our country with the fence at all. I'm just going to take care of them and that will change their behavior, but they're killing a lot of our people.