WEBVTT - In-Depth with Gov. Ron DeSantis 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:04.200 Guess what. I'm back. This is the second season of 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:06.840 the Truth with Lisa Booth, and I have big news 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:10.000 for you guys. We're moving to twice per week, every 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:14.040 Monday every Thursday. Every week you can expect new episodes 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:17.640 of the Truth with Lisa Booth, and we are starting 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:21.040 with a banger. He's the most talked about governor in 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:25.040 America and he's also my governor. Governor run to Santi's. 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:30.440 He led Florida through COVID by rejecting Anthony Fauchery, rejecting 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:33.839 the CDC, showing the rest of the country that lockdowns 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:36.720 don't work. And I don't want to know what this 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:39.000 country would look like if it wasn't for Florida and 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:42.519 Governor Ron de Santa's leading the way for freedom, standing 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:47.440 against their totalitarians. And now he's taking on what culture. 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:50.960 He's fighting the left, fighting the media, and protecting children 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:55.160 from indoctrination. And for this episode, I wanted to get 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:57.560 into all those issues, and we do, but I also 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:00.319 wanted to get into the governor's thought process. How does 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:04.160 he make decisions? Who is Governor Ron de Santis. We 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.240 talked about his family and his upbringing as well, and 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:09.640 if you haven't checked out his bio. It's insane. The 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:13.240 guy's a complete stud He went to Yale University, where 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:15.560 he graduated with honors from the captain of the varsity 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:19.280 baseball team. He graduated with honors from Harvard Law School. There, 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:20.840 he earned a commission in the U. S. Navy as 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.760 a JAG officer. Then, during active duty service, he deployed 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:27.720 to Iraq as an advisor to YOS Navy commander, and 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:31.400 his military decorations include the Bronze Star Medal for Meritorious 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.720 service in the Iraq Campaign Medal. This was also my 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:38.000 first in person interview, and I went to a press 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.440 conference he gave about the Stock Woke Act. We're gonna 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:42.880 get into that and so much more. I hope you 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:45.680 love this interview. I know I do. Here's my conversation 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:54.840 with Governor Ron de Santis. All right, this is the 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.840 first episode of my second season of The Truth with 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:00.440 Leaves and Booth, and I am sitting that to the 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.280 best governor in America who happens to me, my governor, 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:06.600 because I fled Communists New York to come here. Governor, 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:08.320 it's such an honor to have you on the show. Well, 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:10.200 thanks for having me, and I think you, how long 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:11.840 have you been in Florida now over a year? It's 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:13.359 like a year and a half. You should put me 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:15.440 on the board of tourism. There we go, there we go. 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:19.040 I'm constantly selling the state. So most people who have moved, 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:22.000 in fact, everyone that talks to me, none of them regretted. 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:23.799 And I know you've really enjoyed it. So it means 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.880 a lot to us. It's like living in paradise. It's well, actually, 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:29.400 if you're conservative, come here. If you're not at stale, Well, 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:31.200 I think that's what's happening. I mean, I think we 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.519 really because of what we've done. People are so sensitive, 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:36.960 particularly with COVID, about the type of state government they 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:39.680 live under, and they know it can affect everything from 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:42.360 their kids education to even being able to work and 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:44.640 doing all these things. Like we saw the crazy policies, 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:46.920 and so they are voting with their feet and we 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:49.880 have seen a huge shift towards Republicans since I've been governor. 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:52.880 Well and speaking of crazy policies, So you just held 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:56.720 a press conference for the Stop Woke Act? What is it? 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.880 Why was it needed? Told the audience about it? Whoa 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.760 in this context stands for Stop Wrongs against Our Kids 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:06.760 and Employees Act, and so part of it is giving 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:10.040 parents the ability to hold school districts accountable who do 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:12.880 critical race theory, which is not allowed in Florida's schools. 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:15.480 Part of it also is to give employees, particularly from 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:19.800 these big companies of civil rights protection against having this 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:23.680 oppressive woke ideology imposed on them for job trainings. People 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:26.360 are having to be told that they have to confess 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:29.240 their white privilege and all this other stuff, and honestly 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:32.440 it's asinine. And so we really, with this bill are 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:36.200 doing more to battle wokeness and CRT than any state 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:38.600 is done in the country. And stop woke at Did 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:40.240 you come up with that on your own? That's that's good. 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:43.440 That was my That's good. I like it. So I 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:46.360 wanted to sincerely thank you for providing me safe refuge, 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:48.800 because if it wasn't for you keeping Florida free, I 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:52.560 might be in a gulag somewhere for the unvaccinated. And 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:54.880 like I say that in jess but also in sincerity. 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:57.080 I don't know if you saw that Rasmussen poll from 0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:59.840 not too long ago where you looked at Biden supporters 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:04.200 of UM favored the government putting the unvaccinated and designated 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:09.200 facilities of Democrats more broadly supported taking children away from 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:12.640 parents who weren't vaccinated. How far were we and how 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:16.400 far are we from those kinds of scenarios taking fold well. 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:18.640 I think if Florida had not stood up against that 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.040 and many other bad policies, I think that those would 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:23.160 have taken hold of the whole country. We'd look more 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:25.800 like Canada right now. We were the first state over 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:28.680 a year ago we banned vaccine passports. And when we 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.440 did it, the left had a connection. But even some 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:34.680 of these quote libertarians like, oh, you're banning passports with 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.040 a private business, and I'm like, yeah, I am, because 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.240 your rights should not be circumscribed in terms of just 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:43.599 participating in society based on this COVID shot. It's a 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.840 private matter, and if one business does it, then people 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.360 are gonna say, Florida has passports and we don't allow them. 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:53.520 The result of that was we had the biggest domestic 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:57.000 tourism yere in and we had in the history of 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:59.800 the state, and we had more foreign visitors to f 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:02.000 or the New York City did. New York City has 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:04.520 led for like the last twenty years. They wouldn't be 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:07.360 coming here if they had to show paperwork to go 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:11.200 get a hamburger. What we did was good for the individual, 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:13.600 but it was also good for our state. And I 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:15.360 think if you look at what we did to ban 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:18.520 school districts from forcing the kids to get the COVID 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.400 vacs very very early on, that gave so many parents 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:23.520 a good peace of mind. We have had families moved 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:26.680 to Florida just because of that issue. I don't know 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:30.080 how it went from make it available to people, particularly 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:32.719 senior citizens, to all of a sudden being you know, 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:34.839 you're not gonna even be able to leave your home. 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.640 Some people have said, if you don't get this COVID shot, 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:40.000 I know, by the way the COVID say what you 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:42.480 want about it, it does not prevent you from spreading 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.120 it or getting infected anyways. And so I thought it 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:48.080 was a huge, huge threat to freedom. I think we 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:50.640 held the line, and I think because we held the line, 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:53.200 I think other states in fall. In fact, it's been 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:57.599 reported in some of these liberal publications that Fauci and 0:05:57.640 --> 0:05:59.840 some of these people in Biden's White House wanted him 0:05:59.880 --> 0:06:03.960 to do more draconian restrictions particularly with interstate travel and 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:06.919 vax passes, and some of his political guy said, you know, 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:09.200 if you do that, Governor de Santis is going to 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:11.599 light you up, and I would have and good for 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:13.719 you for that. I mean, you know, I think that's 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:17.360 why conservatives are just loving hearing what you're doing, seeing 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:19.320 what you're doing here in Florida, really holding the line 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:21.760 and going on the offense. And right now we're sort 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.440 of seeing these diverging viewpoints in the Republican Party, like 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:27.279 particularly when you look at what's going on with Disney, 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:29.640 and there's one school of thought where, you know, Republicans 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:31.640 were based to sort of see those numbers that I 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.240 mentioned with Rasmussen and understand that there's some of the 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:36.560 left that would put you away or take your kids 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:38.400 away for your beliefs, right, And then there's this other 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:40.480 side of the Republican Party who thinks you can reason 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:44.159 with people who hold those thoughts. You know, for instance, 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:46.359 on Disney, Charles Cook with the National Review, so that 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:48.440 there was no need for you in the Florida legislature, 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:52.680 Dessault the earth, take revenge or make Florida's policies worse. 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.320 You know, how should we approach today's left. Well, look, 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:59.880 all I would say is if you think one California 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:03.760 ace company having their own government and having separate rules 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.919 from everybody else in Florida is good policy, I'd like 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:08.839 to know how you're coming to that conclusion. I mean, 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.840 the fact of the matter is this was an aberration 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:13.960 when it was done in the sixties to draw them in, 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:15.960 and maybe it was the right thing then, I don't know, 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:19.960 but now, uh, it is just not justifiable at all. 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:22.520 And so the question is is not that, oh, you're 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:26.000 doing it to for quote revenge. The issue is is 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:30.440 Disney really damaged his political standing in Florida. The legislature 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.280 would never have considered doing this even six months ago. 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:37.240 But because Disney is coming out and supporting transgender ideology 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:41.040 and young kids, kids education. You saw the zoom calls 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:43.440 where these higher ups in Disney are talking about, we 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:45.640 have this agenda to really get in the kids programming. 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:48.200 There's not a lot of defenders of Disney right now, 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:49.800 so you're able to look at this with a fresh 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:51.560 set of eyes and say, you know, what, is this 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:54.760 really the partnership that the state of Florida once and 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:57.120 I didn't think it was. I would have. I would 0:07:57.120 --> 0:07:59.520 have signed this bill if they had passed it two 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:04.000 years a just on on substance, but particularly now when 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:07.320 their corporate culture is dedicated to that. And they also 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:09.080 came out saying they're going to make an admission to 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.440 repeal parents rights in Florida. So yes, we signed the bill. 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:16.240 We quote quote one politically whatever that means. But they 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:19.440 said they're coming to really do damage in Florida, and 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:22.239 so we've got to take that seriously. Why would corporations 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:24.360 need to be involved in the first place in Florida 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:27.000 politics or politics of a state. Well, I think what 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:29.240 I've always said is these businesses have every right. It's 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:31.200 a free country. You ever right, But if you get 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:33.679 into the political thicket, then just understand. You know, we're 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:36.280 gonna tussle, we're gonna fight back, and we're gonna expose 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:39.439 what you do. When Disney criticizes Florida, they don't say 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:41.840 a word about the Communist Party in China. In China, 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:43.880 they don't say a word about the Weakers, they don't 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:45.440 say a word about a lot of the places they 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:49.680 do business in who will actually execute homosexuals, and so 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:52.040 saying that there's somehow this big l v g q 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:54.920 uh not when it affects their bottom line. They're willing 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:57.200 to do business in a lot of very bad places. 0:08:57.240 --> 0:08:59.760 And so to single Florida out just by saying that 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:03.520 you shouldn't have this transgender ideology and young kids classrooms 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:06.320 was was really weird. But I think that what's happening 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.760 in corporate America is some of the executives are woke 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:12.000 and they think that they have this um. I think 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:14.679 most of it, though, is there's cabals of employees who 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.760 are very radical, and I don't think they represent the 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:20.120 kind of the overall viewpoint of the employees. But I 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:22.240 think most of these other employees are scared to speak 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:24.880 out because if you speak out against this stuff, people 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:26.840 will attack you. They'll come after you. Mean, for example, 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:28.880 with the women's sports, you know we were very strong 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:32.520 and saying what they did in that five yard freestyle 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:35.280 to have a male swimmer who swam for three years 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:37.320 on the men's team then switched to women, and you 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:40.640 say that's the women's champion. You're depriving these other women 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.960 of fair opportunities and wanted the second place finisher quote 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:46.160 unquote should have won the Championshiship was from Florida. So 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:49.199 we put out a proclamation and people would tell me, Governor, 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:51.840 thanks for standing up for this. We're too scared to 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.560 speak out because we're worried about the consequences. So I 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:57.120 think what's happened in these companies is they just have 0:09:57.200 --> 0:09:59.720 a lot of momentum. There's really nobody that's pushing back 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:02.040 again in STEM and so they end up having an 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.160 outsized influence. But I do not think that woke impulse 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:10.559 represents a majority of of employees, even in Disney in California, 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:12.800 certainly not Disney in Orlando. I mean they when they 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:15.000 did the big day of protest, they had one employee 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:18.320 protests in Orlando. I think most of those employee, Yeah, 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.160 I think most of those employees either supported the bill 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.600 or just didn't think Disney should get involved with it. 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:25.400 And so but but I do think this is going 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:27.920 to increasingly be an issue. And so what do we 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:32.320 do as conservatives? Do we allow massive corporate power to 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:35.440 get behind a very pernicious ideology and impose that on 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:38.240 society and what we just say free market and don't 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:41.880 do anything while everything is getting steamrolled. I don't think 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:43.480 you can do that, So I think you get in 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:45.920 the arena and you fight back, and that's what we're doing. 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:48.880 Do you think corporations will think twice before weighing in 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:51.800 on some of the stuff now? Think they will? In Florida? Yeah? 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:53.600 I think so too. You know, I wanted to ask 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:55.480 you so that the Florida Department of Health has issued 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:59.720 guidelines for treating gender dysmorphia, recommending against gender transition, purity 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.240 block gers, and hormones. But would you support a state 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:05.599 law banning any of those medical interventions for children? I 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:08.160 would ban the Yeah, I would ban the sex shade 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.880 of the operations. I think that it's something that you 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:13.640 can't get a tattoo if you're if you're twelve years old. 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:15.720 When they say gender firm and care me, what they 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:17.560 mean a lot of times is you are really you're 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:21.920 catstrating a young boy, you're sterilizing a young girl. You're 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:24.679 you're doing missectomies for for these very young girls. And 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.400 here's the thing what our guidance pointed to in the 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:30.120 Surgeon General did a great job for these young kids. 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.559 Eight percent of the cases resolve themselves as they grow up. 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:37.199 And so you're doing things that are permanently altering them 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:39.440 and then they're not going to be able to reverse that, 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.240 and so I don't think it's appropriate for kids at all. 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:45.320 I think the guidance is right, but I think that 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:47.959 there should be additional protections because you know, when you're 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:50.080 growing up, there are things that you know, it's an 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:53.640 awkward time, and it seems like there there's a concerted 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.720 effort ince society to push these kids in to do 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:59.920 some type of medical intervention. In our judgment, that's not healthy. 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:01.800 Well's gonna ask you, why do you think the left 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:04.240 is digging their heels in so hard on some of 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:06.679 these issues. I mean, there's literally a Netflix series right 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.040 now called He's Expecting, which you know, I wasn't aware 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.600 that's possible, but you know, and obviously they have attacked 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:15.000 to you for the parental rights bill. You know, they've 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:18.080 stood behind men playing in women's sports. So why why 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.160 are they digging their heels in on this? I can't 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:23.400 explain it. I just think they're they have a very 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.600 militant left to ideology. I think their view is, you know, 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:29.400 they want to assault the earth of society and upend 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:31.360 all these different conventions. I mean, you know, the House 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:34.400 of representatives under Pelosi. At the beginning of this current Congress, 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:36.560 they voted to ban using the words on the house 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:39.400 floor mother, sister, daughter, things like that. They said it 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:42.640 was not inclusive enough. And I think most people see 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.160 that and they're like, this is nuts. When they see 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:48.480 that picture of the swim, you know, champion versus and 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:50.160 then you have the other three girls hugging off to 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:52.280 the side. They're looking at that. They're like, come on, 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:54.760 when you tell me that a man can get pregnant, 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:57.560 I'm not down with that. I know that that's not true. 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:01.400 So I think it's been very a damaging to them 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:05.560 politically because the more the left is, i mean fairly 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:08.880 tagged with those views, I think it's abhorrent to a 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:10.720 lot of folks. And I think that's part of the 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:13.880 reason why you see so many particularly working class constituencies 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:17.120 fleeing the left and gonna probably vote Republican this year. 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:21.239 Quit commercial break and then back with Governor Rhnde Stantis. 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:26.720 I think if you're out there having to explain where 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.680 you're not a groomer like, you might be losing the debate. Yeah, 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:32.199 And I think it's interesting because the parents rights in 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:35.080 education we did to stop woke AC was one of 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:38.160 my big initiatives, and we also did curriculum transparency. Every 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:40.839 parent has the right to know what curriculum is being 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:42.760 used in the schools. You think that would be common sense. 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:44.520 The left fights you on that. They believe when your 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.440 kid goes to school, they get their hooks into the kids, 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:49.560 and you, as a parents should budd out. And that's 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:52.320 a that's a seminal battle that we're fighting parents rights 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:55.120 in education. When they were doing it, you know, it 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:58.240 wasn't necessarily something that that I was terribly involved with 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.080 because I didn't realize the extent to which this was 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:03.800 happening in these young grades. But you see the curriculum. 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:06.679 They have the gender unicorn which says, oh, you know, 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.440 you can do this or that, the gender bread man 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.400 they have that clearly is all geared towards very very 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:14.960 young kids, these kids that are in first and second 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:18.040 third grade. And I was like, when the media started 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:19.760 making a big deal about it it was going through 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:22.400 the legislative process, I had my staff pull the language 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:24.520 and I read it. I'm like, are you kidding me? 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:27.240 Are they really going to fight this battle saying that 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:30.840 we need to have sexuality and transgender and grades K 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:33.120 through three. It's like, I can't believe that that would 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:35.800 be a winning issue, and so I started speaking out, 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:37.440 and we you know, we made sure it got across 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.560 the finish line, be signed the legislation. But I do 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:43.800 think that there's a school of thought that is, you 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:46.760 gotta get this ideology into them when they're young. If 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:49.040 you don't, the parents are going to raise them differently, 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:51.360 and then it's gonna be harder to kind of change 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:53.320 their due. So I think it's you know, I don't 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:56.640 think it's necessarily you know, from a sexual perspective. I 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:59.680 think what it is is an ideological perspective. They're trying 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:04.080 to grow people to be uh more ideological in their viewpoints, 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:06.360 and they think starting younger is going to get them there. 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:10.040 I mean, it's indoctrination, of course, and that's when Florida, 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:13.400 that's the bright line we draw. We want quality education. 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:16.960 We have no tolerance for indoctrination in our schools. That's 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:19.840 why we're doing the critical race theory. That's why we're 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:23.400 doing stuff with the curriculum transparency. That's why we're making 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:27.360 sure that all the textbooks meet state standards in Florida, 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:30.280 and we are going to be vigorous and enforcing that 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:34.440 distinction between education and indoctrination. It seems like people were 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:37.600 sort of very submissive and taking a lot with COVID, 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:39.480 and then once they started seeing some of the stuff 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:41.560 their kids were being taught with critical it's sort of 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.200 race theory. It's sort of woke a sleeping beast, right, 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:46.880 Like we saw with Virginia, parents really rising up, going 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:49.800 to school boards, getting more involved, and you really just 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:51.360 speaking out in a way that they weren't about some 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:54.400 of these COVID issues. I mean, where do you think 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:56.840 this goes with? You know, now they're pushing against parental 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:00.320 rights on this transgender stuff, and where does this all go. Well. 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:02.960 I think what they've done is they have really changed 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:05.960 the political landscape to where now some of the most 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.520 important elections for voters are these school board races. If 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:12.480 you go back even four years ago, no one really 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:14.560 cared about the school board I mean some did, but 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:17.400 they were not hot button issues. They were not high profile. 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:19.120 These are in Florida. They're gonna be some of the 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:21.120 most high profile races. Part of the reason is our 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:24.480 school boards races are nonpartisan, so you'll have these kind 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:28.680 of deep red counties that will elect somebody who is 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:31.520 running kind of as a fake conservative, but really back 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:33.760 by the Union and the Left. They get in and 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:37.040 they force mass kids. They have the the the indoctrination 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:39.800 and all that stuff. So now parents are on high 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:42.200 alert about this, and I think you're going to see, 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:45.800 particularly Republicans, they're gonna come out with a vengeance and 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:47.880 they are going to want to make sure they hold 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:51.000 some of these bad school board members accountable for what 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:53.760 they did over the last two years. But I think 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:55.560 it's a beautiful thing because that your parents should be 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:57.880 involved in their kid's life. They should be involved in 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:00.800 what their kids are being taught. Its parency is a 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:03.040 good thing. And you know, speaking of fatherhood, so you 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:07.720 recently signed a bill addressed the addressing the decline of fatherhood. 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:11.360 You have three adorable children. Why do you think we've 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:14.480 had this decline of fatherhood and a decline in recognizing 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:17.640 the importance of it. Well, I think if you look back, 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.119 you go back to the nineteen fifties, I mean, the 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:23.560 family was very strong across the board, and I think 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:27.480 you've seen increasingly fewer and fewer kids have fathers. In 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:30.160 the home. You know, people will point to how that's 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:32.920 happened in the black community, and it has, but it's 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:35.320 happened in all communities to a certain extent. And so 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.359 I think it's a problem, you know, that's not just 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:39.520 confined to the inner city. I think it's something that 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:42.520 is we've really seen society wide. The fact of the 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:45.439 matter is, when you have a father in the home, uh, 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:48.600 the kids chance of dropping out of school declines, the 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:51.199 kids chance to get trouble with the law declines, the 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:54.040 chances they will do drugs declines. And these are just 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:58.399 very very powerful metrics that are repeated across every community, 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:02.160 every state, UH, and every country. And so our view 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:04.480 is is we want to make sure that we're promoting 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:07.720 this is something that parents understand. Fathers understand this is 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:11.000 their responsibility they need to be involved, but also providing 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:13.360 the type of resources that would help some of these 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:15.720 guys get back into their kids lives. So, for example, 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:17.880 one of the things that bill does is it allows 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:20.159 some of these nonprofit groups to apply for grants. So 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:22.119 we had Tony Dungee was the former coach of the 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:24.320 Colts and the Bucks. Great guy. He has on all 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:26.320 pro Dad's Group, and so we've worked with them since 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:28.159 I've been governor. They do a great job. And he 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:30.679 told the story of why he founded that because he 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:33.040 went to a prison with one of the ministers in 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:35.000 the Tampa Bay area when who's the coach of the Bucks, 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:37.359 and he looked at all everybody who had gotten in 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:39.680 trouble and he noticed that and what in his words, 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.080 he's like, it wasn't because they were poor, or because 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:44.480 of their race, or because of their religion. The reason 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:46.199 they ended up in prison was because they did not 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:48.240 have a father in the home. That was the one 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:52.439 thing that was there. And so their organization really works 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:54.720 to help to help some of these dads play a 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:56.919 more meaningful role in their life. And so there's a 0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:59.600 lot we talked about in politics and public policy. If 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:02.880 you could snap your fingers and just guarantee that every 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.240