Ron DeSantis’ Exclusive Interview with Kayleigh McEnany

You know, as a woman and a mother, I know it's no secret to you and the Republican Party, extremely important to win over women, suburban women. When it comes to the issue of abortion, you gave an answer on the debate stage. You talked about hearing your daughter's heartbeat, very moving moment, I thought. But one thing that the pro-life movement is about is supporting vulnerable women. Senator Rubio has proposed the Unborn Child Care, or a Child Protection Act that would essentially give child support from the moment of conception. Is that something you'd consider would force states to force men to give women what they're due from the moment of conception? These men, look, most of these women do not want to have abortions, but they feel like they have no other options because they get no support. And that's because a lot of these men are nowhere to be found. They should absolutely be providing support. They should absolutely be held accountable. What we've done in Florida is we've recognized that being pro-life means for the whole kit and caboodle. So we've expanded postpartum medical care for poor women to a full year after they have a child. But we've also done things to advance options for foster care and adoption, because that is something that we want to be able to foster. I think a lot of it comes down to whether women think it's financially feasible to do that. And when they don't get support from the father, then it can be overwhelming. So we in Florida are sympathetic to those women in that situation. Marsha Blackburn has considered legislation that would give grants to states to put armed guards at schools, to put retired law enforcement at schools, to harden schools. Is that something you would consider on a federal level? We've done it. Florida's the model for what we've done. I came into office on the heels of the Parkland massacre down in Broward County. And it was a very traumatic incident for our state. And I've known now some of the parents I've become friends with. And so we've put our money where our mouth is. We also have the Guardian program, which allows civilians who are trained to conceal carry on campus. And the media on the left, they say, oh, teachers should not be forced to carry firearms. Of course not. No one's saying you should. But just having that option, these bad guys, they gravitate to soft targets. If they think they're walking into a school and they don't know what's behind the door, they're going to be less likely to want to do that. We've done a lot in Florida. I think that's the model. I would not have the federal government force states to do it. But if there's a role to provide support, that can make a difference. But maybe grants. Yeah, maybe some grants. Yeah. OK. And then final question for you. The three part stool for me, for suburban women. The final issue I hear a lot about is education and curriculums. And Washington Post's KFF poll came out and it said that 77 percent, it wasn't packaged as your legislation in Florida specifically, but 77 percent of Americans do not want to see gender ideology in K through three education. Now, I know you've implemented this on a state level. On a federal level, is there any role for the federal government as it pertains to curriculum? So I think we're not going to have a national curriculum, but I think what we did in Florida is the model for the country. We want education, not indoctrination. And we want parents to have their rights protected. They ultimately are the ones who have the right to direct the education and upbringing of their kids. And I think parents throughout this country should be able to send their kids to school without having an agenda shoved down their throat. Even 10 years ago, nobody would have thought that you would go to a second grade classroom and teach a second grader that they can change genders. First of all, it's not true. Second of all, it's totally inappropriate. So I think parents' rights should apply nationally. How you do that in terms of Congress acting, there are some strings in terms of federal funding that people take. But the bottom line is for me, I'm going to be on the side of parents. I'm going to be on the side of having curriculum that is rooted in academic achievement, not in somebody's social agenda. And parents have the right to inspect the curriculum. It's unfortunate that there's been pornography put into schools. And it's interesting, the media will say if you take a pornographic book out of a fourth grade classroom, that that's somehow banning the book. No, adults can get it. It's fine. But you don't jam adult material into an elementary school environment. If adults want to do adult material, they do that on their own time. Heck, they can watch Hunter Biden's laptop for all I care. But do not bring it to our schoolchildren. But it's also a larger thing about the health of our country. Our country, we're not going to be able to reverse our country's decline unless we get the education system back on proper footing. All right. Thank you very much, Governor. Thank you. Appreciate it. Yep.