DeSantis says he supports deploying military along U.S.-Mexico border

We are about to hear from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whose vaunted status as the top Republican challenger to former President Donald Trump, well, that's been slipping a bit. A recent poll shows that the gap between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis has widened. It is now more than 40 points. To get back on track, the governor is working to focus on popular issues, big issues for conservatives, among them immigration, border security. You'll recall that Florida, the state he governs, has paid for migrants along the southern border to be transported to other states. Well, yesterday, DeSantis spoke about that and other campaign issues with CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor, Norah O'Donnell. We're in New York. We've heard the mayor here say that this city's about to go bankrupt because of the migrants that are in this city. You supported sending migrants to states and cities in the Northeast. Why do you support that? Well, we need to stop the problem. I mean, so I'll shut down the border. I will end these bad policies. Yes, we'll build a wall. We'll lean against the drug cartels. I mean, part of it is the drugs pouring in are killing tens of thousands of Americans. You also have criminal aliens coming. There's sex trafficking, human trafficking. There's a lot of stuff. But just the sheer number of people, New York City is an example. You can't, as a society, just have people pouring in. It taxes social services, education, healthcare, all these different things. It's not the way to run a country. And what's happened, though, is because some of the sanctuary jurisdictions, who were very high on virtue signaling when this wasn't affecting them, have now had to acknowledge that this is untenable for a country to operate this way. On the issue of the drug cartels, you have said stone-cold dead. When these drug pushers are bringing fentanyl across the border, that's gonna be the last thing they do. We're gonna use force, and we're gonna leave them stone-cold dead. Would you commit U.S. 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 wall. I'm like, what are you doing? They're like, well, we're repairing it. I'm like, what happened? He 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. The tactics, I think, 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- But launching military forces into Mexico is a much different standard. That's why I'm asking this question. But the reality is they are overrunning our border. They're sex trafficking, they're 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 this- But is it a border- 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, I mean, if they're trying to break through the wall, we will have deadly force authorized to be able to stop that. I mean, if someone- To shoot migrants coming across the border. Cartel members. I mean, you have to identify them as being hostile. I mean, if there's a woman with a baby, they're not a cartel member. There's not gonna be authorization to just shoot somebody like that. But when somebody's got a backpack on 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. Guess what? You do that a few times, the times are a-changin'. They will have to respond to that. They're not just gonna continue to walk in to that buzzsaw. They do it now because they know that there's no pushback, they know people are dying in America, and that's fine with them. It's not fine with me. You can see more of that interview with Governor Ron DeSantis tonight on the CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell.