Ron DeSantis’ Highlights ― Second Primary Republican Debate

The people in Washington are shutting down the American dream with their reckless behavior. They borrowed, they printed, they spent, and now you're paying more for everything. They are the reason for that. They have shut down our national sovereignty by allowing our border to be wide open. So please spare me the crocodile tears for these people. They need to change what's going on. And where's Joe Biden? He's completely missing in action from leadership. And you know who else is missing in action? Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt. That set the stage for the inflation that we have. Now I can tell you this, as governor of Florida, we cut taxes, we ran surpluses, we've paid down over 25% of our state debt, and I vetoed wasteful spending when it came to my desk. And as your president, when they send me a bloating spending bill that's going to cause your prices to go up, I'm going to take out this veto pen, and I'm going to send it right back to them. Ilya, you mentioned me. You had a question. I just want to address that. Governor DeSantis, we have a question for you. Governor DeSantis, China invested $12 billion in Latin America just last year. They signed strategic partnerships with seven countries, including Mexico. And China's military ties to the region now include arms sales and training exercises. Are you comfortable with China deepening ties with our southern neighbors? Of course not. And the reason why we're in this mess is because elites in D.C. for far too long have chosen surrender over strength when it comes to the CCP. Some people in our country got rich, our industrial base got hollowed out, and they have been able to build the second most powerful military in the entire world. We need a totally new approach to China. We are going to have real hard power in the Indo-Pacific, like Reagan, to deter their ambitions. We're going to have economic independence from China, where we're decoupling our economy. And we are going to go after the cultural power they have in this country. As governor of Florida, I ban the CCP from buying land in our state. We should do that all across these United States. We shouldn't have them in our universities. We shouldn't have Confucius Institutes. So you see a country in decline, our power's in decline. China's going to surpass us this decade. And if they do that, that's going to affect every single American household. As your president, I am not going to let that happen. I'm going to reverse this country's decline. We are going to choose strength, not surrender, when it comes to the CCP. — You fired prosecutors in your state, but as governor—I mean, sorry, as president, you would not have the ability to do that. How do you think about dealing with the root causes of crime, especially this revolving door of the criminals that just get out and come back and commit another crime? — Well, the crime in these cities is one of the strongest signs of the decaying of America. We can't be successful as a country if people aren't even safe to live in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco. Just being in Southern California over the last couple days, my wife and I have met three people who have been mugged on the street. And that would have never happened 10 or 20 years ago. In Florida, we back the blue. We support the men and women of law enforcement. They are keeping us safe. We have a 50-year low in the crime rate. And yes, when I had two progressive prosecutors that weren't following the law in Florida, I removed them from their posts, and the people of Florida are safer as a result of it. As president, I will use the Justice Department to bring civil rights cases against all of those left-wing Soros-funded prosecutors. We're not going to let them get away with it anymore. We want to reverse this country's decline. We need to choose law and order over rioting and disorder. Everything he said, I agree with. That is why, as commander-in-chief, I'm going to use the U.S. military to go after the Mexican drug cartels. They are killing our people. And the stories that I've seen—in Florida, we had an infant, 18 months, parents rented an Airbnb. And apparently, the people that had rented it before were using drugs. The infant was crawling—the toddler was crawling on the carpet and ingested fentanyl residue and died. Are we just going to sit here and let this happen, this carnage happen in our country? I am not going to do that. So I guarantee you, on day one, this border is going to be a day-one issue for me as president. We're going to declare it a national emergency. Yes, we'll build the wall. We'll do Remain in Mexico. But those Mexican drug cartels are going to be treated like the foreign terrorist organizations that they are. All right, Vice President Pence, we're going to move on. May I remind everyone to keep within their time frame so that we can get as many questions in as possible. This question for Governor DeSantis, over 26 million Americans don't have insurance coverage. Governor DeSantis, two-and-a-half million of them are in your state. That's worse than the national average. Can Americans trust you on this? Well, I think this is a symptom of our overall economic decline. Everything has gotten more expensive. You see insurance rates are going through the roof. People that are going to get groceries—I spoke with a woman in Iowa, and she said, you know, for the first time in my life, I'm having to take things out of my grocery cart when I get to the checkout line because the total goes up so quickly. So this is very real, and people are hurting out there. So we've got to address the underlying problem with Bidenomics, the overspending, taking all Biden's rules and regulations—I'm going to throw them in the trash can on day one. You're not going to have to worry about that. We're going to open up all of our energy. We will be energy dominant in this country. That will lower your gas prices. And what we need to do with healthcare is recognize our healthcare is putting patients at the back of the bus. We have big pharma, big insurance, and big government, and we need to tackle that and have more power for the people and the doctor-patient relationship. Governor, why is your record in Florida on insurance worse than the national average? Our state's a dynamic state. We've got a lot of folks that come. Of course, we've had a population boom. We also don't have a lot of welfare benefits in Florida. You know, we're basically saying we want to—this is a field of dreams. You can do well in the state, but we're not going to be like California and have massive numbers of people on government programs without work requirements. We believe you work, and you got to do that, and so that goes for all the welfare benefits. And you know what that's done, Stuart? Our unemployment rate is the lowest amongst any big state. We have the highest GDP growth against any big state, and even CNBC—no fan of mine—ranked Florida the number one economy in America. Governor, we're moving on. I have a question for you. Governor DeSantis, I have a question for you. Florida's new Black History curriculum says, quote, "'Slaves develop skills which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit.' You have said, "'Slaves develop skills in spite of slavery, not because of it.' But many are still hurt. For descendants of slaves, this is personal. What is your message to them?" So, first of all, that's a hoax that was perpetrated by Kamala Harris. We are not going to be doing that. First of all, that was written by descendants of slaves. These are great Black History scholars, so we need to stop playing these games. Here's the deal. Our country's education system is in decline because it's focused on indoctrination, denying parents' rights. Florida represents the revival of American education. We're ranked number one in the nation in education by U.S. News & World Report. My wife and I, we have a 6-, 5-, and 3-year-old. This is personal to us. We didn't just talk about universal school choice. We enacted universal school choice. We didn't just talk about parents' bill of rights. We enacted the parents' bill of rights. We eliminated critical race theory, and we now have American civics and the Constitution in our schools in a really big way, just like President Reagan asked for in his farewell address back in 1989. Florida is showing how it's done. We're standing with parents, and our kids are standing with us. China is investing heavily in their tech companies, $280 billion every year on semiconductor research and development. That is one CHIPS act per year. Governor DeSantis, you say companies like Google and Meta have too much power. Should going after them give China an edge? No. I think if you look at how our society's developed, they have huge amount of power over our society. They've cracked down on free speech. We're not saying you don't want them to do business, but you want it to be a free market. And right now, they're monopolies. This issue of China, I think, is really going to be fundamental. We have subcontracted out so much of our national needs to the CCP. We rely on them for a whole host of issues. We need to reshore, and we need to decouple. All those important industries, we need to get that back in the United States. They are our top geopolitical adversary by a country mile. Xi Jinping's got huge ambitions, not only in the Asia-Pacific, but as you mentioned earlier, in our region. But ultimately, we've got to beat them on the economy. And so that's what we'll do as president of the United States. Governor DeSantis, let me go to you. Experts say President Putin has ordered assassinations across Europe, cheated on arms control treaties with the U.S., and seeks to work with China to force our decline. President Reagan believed that if you want to prevent a war, you better be prepared to fight one. Today, the Republican Party is at odds over aid to Ukraine. The price tag so far is $76 billion. But is it in our best interest to degrade Russia's military for less than 5 percent of what we pay annually on defense, especially when there are no U.S. soldiers in the fight? It's in our interest to end this war, and that's what I will do as president. We are not going to have a blank check. We will not have U.S. troops, and we're going to make the Europeans do what they need to do. But they've sent money to pay bureaucrats' pensions and salaries and funding small businesses halfway around the world. Meanwhile, our own country is being invaded. We don't even have control of our own territory. We have got to defend the American people before we even worry about all these other things. And I watch these guys in Washington, D.C., and they don't care about the American people. They don't care about the fentanyl deaths. They don't care about the communities being overrun because of this border. They don't care about the Mexican drug cartels. So as commander-in-chief, I will defend this country's sovereignty. Governor DeSantis, this is your question. The Biden administration is hell-bent on student loan forgiveness, but you say colleges should be on the hook when graduates cannot pay their debt. How does that address the cost of college—how does that—the cost of college itself? Because the colleges are going to have to make a decision. Do we offer—do we expand the gender studies department, knowing some of those graduates may not have great learning opportunities? No. They're going to focus on the things that really matter. They're going to make different choices. They're going to try to graduate people in four years. I also just want to come back to something Dana asked last segment about 9-11, because I was just at the 9-11 memorial with the families my wife and I were invited. It was very touching to be there, and it affected my life, because I ended up joining the military as a result of that. I had been a blue-collar kid, minimum wage in Dunedin, Florida. I ended up getting through Yale and Harvard Law School and somehow came out more conservative than when I went in, and that is not easy to do. I had a lot of opportunities to make money, but I wanted to serve. And I'll never forget coming back on the plane from Iraq, landing in Coronado, California, North Island, and feeling that breeze off the Pacific Ocean and saying, you know what? I am lucky to have been born an American, and I think being able to serve—and I'll be the first president elected since 1988 who's actually served overseas in a war. I think that's going to help me as commander in chief to know how you see these issues and understand that there are real lives at stake for people that wear the uniform. And we know that Governor Haley's husband is serving right now as well, and we thank him for that. I want to ask you about something that I think is on a lot of Republicans' minds. This election could come down to less than 50,000 votes in three states. Abortion was on the ballot in six states in 2022. Republicans lost all of them. Next year, abortion will likely be on the ballot in Arizona. That is a must-win state. Governor DeSantis, how are you going to win over independent, pro-choice voters in Arizona? Same way we did in Florida. We won the greatest Republican victory in a governor's race in the history of the state, over 1.5 million votes. We were winning places like Miami-Dade County, Palm Beach, that nobody thought was possible because we were leading with purpose and conviction. I reject this idea that pro-lifers are to blame for midterm defeats. I think there's other reasons for that. The former president, you know, he's missing in action tonight. He's had a lot to say about that. He should be here explaining his comments to try to say that pro-life protections are somehow a terrible thing. I want him to look into the eyes and tell people who've been fighting this fight for a long time. I was at—my wife and I earlier today were at the gravesite of President and Mrs. Reagan, and I noticed that there was a quote where it says, every single person has purpose and worth. We're better off when everybody counts. And I think we should stand for what we believe in. I think we should hold the Democrats accountable for their extremism, supporting abortion all the way up until the moment of birth. That is infanticide, and that is wrong.