Morning Wire XX
[0] After months of speculation, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis entered the 2024 presidential race late last month and currently finds himself closer to former President Trump in the polls than the rest of the Republican field.
[1] Morning Wire caught up with the Florida governor on the streets of San Francisco earlier this week to witness firsthand the twin crises of homelessness and the fentanyl epidemic.
[2] In this episode, we talked with DeSantis about the fallout from California's progressive policies, his public battle with Gavin Newsom, and what he thinks in the end will win.
[3] not only the Republican primary, but the 2024 election.
[4] I'm Daily Wire, editor -in -chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[5] It's Sunday, June 25th, and this is an extra edition of Morning Wire.
[6] Some context ahead of the following audio, which is based on a video that we're also releasing.
[7] Our discussion with Governor DeSantis begins on the streets of San Francisco, where we encountered dozens of homeless people in fentanyl addicts, as well as a group of police officers who were there to try to move some of the homeless people out of the area.
[8] Those officers walked up to us to meet the governor and thank him for his work.
[9] We then sat down in a nearby cafe afterwards for the rest of the interview.
[10] So, Governor, we're here in the heart of San Francisco, kind of behind enemy lines, if you will.
[11] We've got, you know, a very progressive California, very conservative, Florida under your leadership.
[12] What are you hoping to see here in California?
[13] What are you trying to experience first stand here?
[14] Well, I think what we're seeing is the failure of leftist policies.
[15] I mean, we pulled in.
[16] I already saw somebody defecating on the street.
[17] I think this is the urban defecation capital of America.
[18] And so you really seen a city that used to be one of the best in the country in terms of vibrancy, in terms of prosperity.
[19] You've just seen it become hollowed out.
[20] And it's a direct result of leftist policy and leftist ideology.
[21] And so it's sad.
[22] But I can tell you, as governor of Florida, I never saw a California license plate growing up in Florida.
[23] Then I become governor, and especially in the aftermath of COVID, we have Californians flooding, leaving San Francisco to go to Miami and other places.
[24] And yes, we like what we're doing, people appreciate it.
[25] But part of it is it was intolerable to live in this area because they don't care about crime, they don't care about homelessness.
[26] No one wants to live under those circumstances.
[27] What are some different things that you've done in Florida as opposed to California that's keeping this kind of situation from happening?
[28] Whatever they do, we try to do the opposite on a lot of this stuff.
[29] I mean, I think, you know, they really facilitate increasing homelessness.
[30] They're very tolerant about illegal drug use, particularly public.
[31] We will not countenance that.
[32] And then their approach to criminal justice has been a total disaster.
[33] I mean, you cannot have somebody get into office and say, we are not going to prosecute criminals.
[34] That just doesn't work.
[35] And I've talked to people that have moved to Florida from here and other parts of the country.
[36] And they say, you know, someone mugged me or they robbed my car or they even broke into my home.
[37] no prosecution.
[38] I mean, can you imagine that?
[39] Of course you're going to get more crime as a result.
[40] So when you don't do those basics, the whole quality of life can collapse.
[41] And the fact that that's happened here in what would have been one of the wealthiest areas in the entire world probably was 10 years ago.
[42] You know, it shows you the ideas that we fight over, they matter.
[43] And when put into place in Florida, our ideas, we've thrived.
[44] When the left wing ideas are put in here, the whole place crumbles.
[45] We have one of the hubs here of the homeless crisis.
[46] And we also have right here the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
[47] And this is the Nancy Pelosi federal building right here in their front lawn.
[48] We've seen a lot of really young drug addicts here.
[49] It's a little irony to that.
[50] I mean, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has done a lot of damage in this country with left -wing rulings over the years.
[51] It's gotten a little bit better, but it's still, you know, very far out there.
[52] And then, of course, Pelosi's policies, I mean, in some respects, this is.
[53] the logical culmination of the Pelosi liberalism that has been growing in San Francisco for many decades now.
[54] Hey, how you doing?
[55] Good to see you, man. Your city police?
[56] How long have you been doing it?
[57] God bless you, man. You got your work cut out for you here.
[58] How you doing, buddy?
[59] Hey, thanks so much for your service.
[60] We appreciate you guys.
[61] We appreciate you wearing the uniform.
[62] Coming up next year.
[63] Oh, man. Just in case.
[64] Well, you know, it's like, if people aren't going to want to have a little bit of change and approach after seeing some of this.
[65] I mean, it's just sad.
[66] And you guys deserve better support.
[67] I mean, it's unacceptable that you're going out there at risk in your life and like, you know, you can apprehend someone and they just let them go.
[68] I mean, you know, it's absurd.
[69] So, yeah.
[70] So, yep, yeah.
[71] Thank you.
[72] Great to see you guys.
[73] After our walk and talk on the streets of San Francisco, we sat down in a nearby cafe to resume our conversation.
[74] So, Governor, I feel like I have to bring up the fact that police officers spontaneously came up and shook your hand.
[75] I just want to process that for a second.
[76] What do you think's going on there?
[77] We're in San Francisco.
[78] Why are they enthusiastic about a Republican governor?
[79] What are they excited about?
[80] Well, they've lived through personally the BLM riots where the local officials here facilitated those effectively and urged them on.
[81] They've seen weak on crime policies where they'll go out apprehend some criminal and then they just won't prosecute them for really serious crimes.
[82] And so I think in Florida, we've stood for law and order across the board.
[83] If a cop like in San Francisco isn't being treated, well, we recruit to Florida.
[84] They get a $5 ,000 signing notice if they come to our state.
[85] So we're proud of that.
[86] Our crime rate, Florida is at a 50 -year low.
[87] Obviously, that's not what's happening here in San Francisco.
[88] So I think, like, in the heart of the BLM riots, I was one of the few guys willing to say, we stand with the people that wear the uniform.
[89] We're not going to tolerate rioting.
[90] We're not going to do this.
[91] At that time, it was more fashionable.
[92] to act like the police or the problem, and we never bought into that in Florida.
[93] On a federal level, how do you think you can make the environment for law enforcement more positive?
[94] You know, there's probably a few levers you can pull, but basically to target these Soros -funded prosecutors who get elected like they had here in San Francisco, and they get elected on a platform not to enforce laws they don't like.
[95] So I've met people who lived in San Francisco that had their homes broken into.
[96] they go to the cops, cops apprehend the guy, and the police will go to them, do you want to press charge?
[97] Of course we do.
[98] Well, they're not going to prosecute.
[99] You know that.
[100] How would they not prosecute?
[101] Someone breaks into your home.
[102] And so that's what ends up happening.
[103] And that's really a civil rights crisis, I think, for average people here.
[104] Because if the law is not enforced, then, you know, you basically have anarchy reigning supreme.
[105] There's a lot of reasons why San Francisco's downhill.
[106] COVID lockdowns were devastating here.
[107] They overdid it for some.
[108] so long it was draconian.
[109] We obviously have bad tax and regulatory policies 100%.
[110] But I think this criminal justice not having public safety is really the root.
[111] If people don't feel safe, they're not going to want to be here.
[112] That's why so many people have fled San Francisco because that's just the threshold that if you don't reach, people are going to get out of Dodge.
[113] You know, we've heard a lot of that same kind of sentiment from the activists we talk to that are on the ground trying to work with the homeless crisis and the drug crisis.
[114] One of the things they brought up is actually the intersection of illegal immigration and crime issues here and that the fentanyl crisis is driven a lot by the illegal immigration problem we have here.
[115] You've taken a lot of progressive action on illegal immigration and actually had some public spats with Governor Newsom over that.
[116] Can you talk about that some?
[117] Well, there's no question that what Biden's allowed to happen at the border is killing Americans with the fentanyl.
[118] In fact, you know, just driving, I mean, we came, you know, on the streets here in San Francisco for like 10 minutes, and I've seen defecation on the streets, we've seen crack cocaine use openly on the streets, and we've seen fentanyl use openly on the streets.
[119] And so this has really got a vice grip around this community, part of it's because the government facilitates it and they think it's good to let people do this.
[120] But yeah, the border has been a huge problem for a lot of reasons, but fentanyl probably the most deadly.
[121] Our view in Florida is we're going to help at the border.
[122] We're doing that.
[123] We're not a sanctuary state.
[124] We've banned sanctuary cities.
[125] If you bring in illegals from the border and smuggle into Florida, you know, we're going to hold you accountable for doing that.
[126] And we've even authorized funds to transport illegal aliens to sanctuary jurisdictions, whether it's Martha's Vineyard or whether it's California.
[127] And I'll tell you, part of the reason they want to go to California is because they know they're going to get benefits in California.
[128] And so California has made themselves a sanctuary state and they're incentivizing basically people to come illegally.
[129] As president, We'll crack down on sanctuary cities nationwide and sanctuary states, whatever, however we can withhold funding or whatever.
[130] We'll pull every lever that we have because I think what they're doing is just flouting the law.
[131] The border, though, we'll do on day one and we'll marshal all the assets, military, civilian, you name it.
[132] This has gone on for decades.
[133] We've been talking about this in conservative circles for decades, and yet it's never been fixed.
[134] We'll bring it to a conclusion.
[135] Speaking of sanctuary states, California also defines itself as now a transatlantic.
[136] transgender sanctuary state.
[137] Florida has taken very different approach to this, a lot of new policies.
[138] What would you do differently, federally speaking, in terms of handling the transgender policies?
[139] Well, I mean, what I say when they say culture, so like in Florida, we said no sex change operation sterilization or puberty blockers for minors.
[140] They are sterilizing these kids.
[141] They are taking off their private parts and their minors.
[142] And what we found is as some of these kids get older, they have huge problems as a result of this.
[143] Many of them have huge regrets.
[144] And so we're saying we're not doing it in Florida.
[145] What does California do?
[146] Not only do they welcome that type of, I'd say would be mutilation, they encourage kids behind their parents' backs to go from other jurisdictions where they don't have the ability to get this type of gender surgery and come to California and do it as minors.
[147] So I think it's totally outrageous that that's happening.
[148] And what they're also doing in California, they want to tell a parent, if you have a kid and the kid says, you know, I know I was born a boy, I'm 12, maybe I think I'm a girl now.
[149] If you don't accept that, you could lose custody of your kid.
[150] That's what they're debating right now.
[151] I think it's probably going to end up passing, just knowing the politics here.
[152] But how outrageous is that?
[153] So that's a massive attack on parental rights.
[154] And I think what the modern left says is, you know, they think parents have a small role in the upbringing of the kid, and if there's a clash between leftist ideology and parental rights, they want the leftist ideology to trump the rights of the parents.
[155] In Florida, we completely reject that.
[156] Now, you've gotten some pushback for your policies, specifically about parental rights.
[157] Some people have accused you of being kind of authoritarian in a sort of a strong government approach.
[158] How would you defend your policies?
[159] Well, I think of anyone you look over the last three or four years, we took more action.
[160] to limit government involvements in people's lives by eliminating COVID lockdowns.
[161] We would go into local communities and I would overrule them.
[162] And I would say, you can't force masks.
[163] You can't force kids to be locked out of school.
[164] You can't force businesses to close.
[165] Now, to me, I think those are actions to promote freedom.
[166] I don't think those are authoritarian at all.
[167] And so we've always stood on the side of doing this.
[168] Now, I think what some people get frustrated with on the left is we have a lot of success in acting policies.
[169] But I'm getting this stuff through the legislature.
[170] So that's the way the constitutional system works.
[171] We say we want a parent's bill of rights.
[172] We work at the legislature.
[173] They deliver it, put on my desk, I sign it.
[174] We say parents' rights and education that we fought Disney over to say no gender ideology in the schools.
[175] Legislature passes it.
[176] I sign it.
[177] It goes into law.
[178] That's the way it should be done.
[179] And I think that, you know, we've taken very strong action to protect and expand people's freedom.
[180] And ultimately, that's the name of the game.
[181] Can that carry over into the federal level?
[182] As president, could you carry over some of those policies on a federal level?
[183] Yeah, I think so.
[184] I mean, first of all, Washington's different than a state.
[185] There's no question about that.
[186] The swamp is more entrenched.
[187] The bureaucracy is way more entrenched.
[188] But you know that going in.
[189] One of the things I did as governor before I got in, I had a compendium of all the powers of the governor, statutory constitutional customary, so I knew which levers to push.
[190] Same thing's going to happen as president.
[191] We'll know Article 2.
[192] We'll know all the statutory.
[193] every little piece of leverage we have.
[194] And what you say is, okay, I've got this agenda, but I've got to get it through a constitutional system.
[195] So what levers can you pull to be able to advance it?
[196] And so we'll be very active.
[197] We'll be on day one spit nails.
[198] We'll be on offense.
[199] And we're not going to just sit like a potted plant like some of these Republicans hoping that good things happen.
[200] We're going to make these things happen.
[201] And, you know, the good news is while the problems are more severe than what we deal with at the state level, I think your power to counteract them is greater as president.
[202] And you have the powers.
[203] You also have the bully pulpit.
[204] And you can really put issues on the agenda in a big way.
[205] We did that in Florida to affect.
[206] But a governor is more limited in terms of the reach that they have.
[207] So we'll be using all tools at our disposal.
[208] Final question.
[209] What wins the 2024 election?
[210] What argument or quality wins it?
[211] Democrat or Republican, what's the deciding factor?
[212] If the election is a referendum on Biden's failures, and we frame it as that, with a candidate like me offering a better path for America, we will win the election.
[213] If it becomes a referendum on side issues or other things, and Biden's allowed to stay in his basement all campaign like he did last time, then I fear that the Democrats will be able to win.
[214] And so focusing on his failures, how he's made America worse, and how we're going to do it better, not only do you get Republicans, you're going to get these independents.
[215] That's what we did in Florida.
[216] We want independence by 18 percentage points.
[217] We want over 60 % of Hispanics because we were identifying the issues that matter to them.
[218] We were fighting the fringe left on all the things they're trying to do.
[219] And I think there's a huge majority coalition for that.
[220] People want a restoration of sanity in this country, and we can deliver that.
[221] Governor, thank you so much.
[222] Thank you.
[223] That was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and this has been an extra edition of Morning Wire.
[224] Thank you.