DeSantis on North Korea, China and more

Tonight North Korea's reclusive Kim Jong-un is in Russia after arriving on an armored train for a rare meeting between two dictators Trading weapons is at the top of their agenda The alliance between the two American adversaries is one of many issues facing whoever wins the 2024 presidential campaign In our series America decides we sat down with Republican Governor Ron DeSantis to talk first about foreign policy Russia wants more weapons to send to Ukraine if Putin gives the North Koreans advanced nuclear technologies in return How would you respond to that threat? Well, we have to obviously keep Kim Jong-un in a box. This is a very irrational individual He's prone perhaps to do irrational things And so we will work to put put him in a box and and to keep the pressure on Kim Jong-un Just last week Kim Jong-un launched a new submarine, which North Korea claims has nuclear attack capabilities Would you as commander-in-chief authorize a preemptive strike against the North Koreans? Yes, if you knew that there was definitely someone was about to launch a missile at you Of course you take action to prevent and protect your people, but that would require a certain amount of evidentiary threshold I don't think you just go willy-nilly We met Ron DeSantis in New York after he visited with 9-eleven families The terror attacks inspired him to join the US Navy today He believes China is our top national security threat. We don't want a war with China. We want to prevent a war with China I think the way you prevent the war is through strength and having a strong military if China invades Taiwan Would you commit US military forces to defend Taiwan? Taiwan is an ally I've been very clear on that. We have very long-standing US policy about how we project Our actions and intentions with guarding Taiwan You will see a continuity of that with me as president one place where DeSantis wants to use US troops is on the border Would you commit US troops to taking out these Mexican cartels? We are gonna lean in and we are gonna defend our country. And so I was at the border in Arizona So there was one part where there was a stretch of wall. These guys are working on the base of the of the wall I'm like, what are you doing? They're like, well, we're repairing it I'm like what happened said the cartels can cut through I mean These are big steel beams and they're cutting through and yet they're being allowed to come in to our country They got backpacks on with fentanyl and all this stuff. So in those situations Yes, we will have deadly force authorized. Would you send missiles into Mexico? We would use all available and the tactics I think are can be debated If you have something you want to accomplish people would brief you on the different ways to be able to do it So that would be dependent on the situation, but I think you're totally military forces into Mexico is a much different standard That's why well, but but the reality is They are overrunning our border their sex trafficking their human trafficking and they're bringing in massive quantities of drugs I mean our country is being invaded and hurt by what they're doing and the question is do we just throw up our hands? And do we say there's nothing we can do about it or does a leader take action because I'll tell you there's a border Can is that you said stone-cold debt? And when you said that that made me think this is more than a border patrol issue. It is Yeah, I'm gonna have the military at the border 100% I mean if they're trying to break through the wall We will have deadly force authorized to be able to stop that Shoot migrants coming across the border cartel members. I mean you you have to identify them as being hostile I mean if there's a if there's a woman with a baby, they're not a cartel member there There's not going to be authorization to just shoot somebody like that But when somebody's got a backpack on and they're and they're breaking through the wall You know that that's hostile intent and you have every right to take action under those circumstances And if you guess what you do that a few times the times are a change in they will have to Respond to that Well tomorrow, we're gonna have more with governor DeSantis to talk about domestic issues like the economy abortion rights and some controversial social policies in Florida