Speaker 1: Guess what. I'm back. This is the second season of
Speaker 1: the Truth with Lisa Booth, and I have big news
Speaker 1: for you guys. We're moving to twice per week, every
Speaker 1: Monday every Thursday. Every week you can expect new episodes
Speaker 1: of the Truth with Lisa Booth, and we are starting
Speaker 1: with a banger. He's the most talked about governor in
Speaker 1: America and he's also my governor. Governor run to Santi's.
Speaker 1: He led Florida through COVID by rejecting Anthony Fauchery, rejecting
Speaker 1: the CDC, showing the rest of the country that lockdowns
Speaker 1: don't work. And I don't want to know what this
Speaker 1: country would look like if it wasn't for Florida and
Speaker 1: Governor Ron de Santa's leading the way for freedom, standing
Speaker 1: against their totalitarians. And now he's taking on what culture.
Speaker 1: He's fighting the left, fighting the media, and protecting children
Speaker 1: from indoctrination. And for this episode, I wanted to get
Speaker 1: into all those issues, and we do, but I also
Speaker 1: wanted to get into the governor's thought process. How does
Speaker 1: he make decisions? Who is Governor Ron de Santis. We
Speaker 1: talked about his family and his upbringing as well, and
Speaker 1: if you haven't checked out his bio. It's insane. The
Speaker 1: guy's a complete stud He went to Yale University, where
Speaker 1: he graduated with honors from the captain of the varsity
Speaker 1: baseball team. He graduated with honors from Harvard Law School. There,
Speaker 1: he earned a commission in the U. S. Navy as
Speaker 1: a JAG officer. Then, during active duty service, he deployed
Speaker 1: to Iraq as an advisor to YOS Navy commander, and
Speaker 1: his military decorations include the Bronze Star Medal for Meritorious
Speaker 1: service in the Iraq Campaign Medal. This was also my
Speaker 1: first in person interview, and I went to a press
Speaker 1: conference he gave about the Stock Woke Act. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get into that and so much more. I hope you
Speaker 1: love this interview. I know I do. Here's my conversation
Speaker 1: with Governor Ron de Santis. All right, this is the
Speaker 1: first episode of my second season of The Truth with
Speaker 1: Leaves and Booth, and I am sitting that to the
Speaker 1: best governor in America who happens to me, my governor,
Speaker 1: because I fled Communists New York to come here. Governor,
Speaker 1: it's such an honor to have you on the show. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me, and I think you, how long
Speaker 1: have you been in Florida now over a year? It's
Speaker 1: like a year and a half. You should put me
Speaker 1: on the board of tourism. There we go, there we go.
Speaker 1: I'm constantly selling the state. So most people who have moved,
Speaker 1: in fact, everyone that talks to me, none of them regretted.
Speaker 1: And I know you've really enjoyed it. So it means
Speaker 1: a lot to us. It's like living in paradise. It's well, actually,
Speaker 1: if you're conservative, come here. If you're not at stale, Well,
Speaker 1: I think that's what's happening. I mean, I think we
Speaker 1: really because of what we've done. People are so sensitive,
Speaker 1: particularly with COVID, about the type of state government they
Speaker 1: live under, and they know it can affect everything from
Speaker 1: their kids education to even being able to work and
Speaker 1: doing all these things. Like we saw the crazy policies,
Speaker 1: and so they are voting with their feet and we
Speaker 1: have seen a huge shift towards Republicans since I've been governor.
Speaker 1: Well and speaking of crazy policies, So you just held
Speaker 1: a press conference for the Stop Woke Act? What is it?
Speaker 1: Why was it needed? Told the audience about it? Whoa
Speaker 1: in this context stands for Stop Wrongs against Our Kids
Speaker 1: and Employees Act, and so part of it is giving
Speaker 1: parents the ability to hold school districts accountable who do
Speaker 1: critical race theory, which is not allowed in Florida's schools.
Speaker 1: Part of it also is to give employees, particularly from
Speaker 1: these big companies of civil rights protection against having this
Speaker 1: oppressive woke ideology imposed on them for job trainings. People
Speaker 1: are having to be told that they have to confess
Speaker 1: their white privilege and all this other stuff, and honestly
Speaker 1: it's asinine. And so we really, with this bill are
Speaker 1: doing more to battle wokeness and CRT than any state
Speaker 1: is done in the country. And stop woke at Did
Speaker 1: you come up with that on your own? That's that's good.
Speaker 1: That was my That's good. I like it. So I
Speaker 1: wanted to sincerely thank you for providing me safe refuge,
Speaker 1: because if it wasn't for you keeping Florida free, I
Speaker 1: might be in a gulag somewhere for the unvaccinated. And
Speaker 1: like I say that in jess but also in sincerity.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw that Rasmussen poll from
Speaker 1: not too long ago where you looked at Biden supporters
Speaker 1: of UM favored the government putting the unvaccinated and designated
Speaker 1: facilities of Democrats more broadly supported taking children away from
Speaker 1: parents who weren't vaccinated. How far were we and how
Speaker 1: far are we from those kinds of scenarios taking fold well.
Speaker 1: I think if Florida had not stood up against that
Speaker 1: and many other bad policies, I think that those would
Speaker 1: have taken hold of the whole country. We'd look more
Speaker 1: like Canada right now. We were the first state over
Speaker 1: a year ago we banned vaccine passports. And when we
Speaker 1: did it, the left had a connection. But even some
Speaker 1: of these quote libertarians like, oh, you're banning passports with
Speaker 1: a private business, and I'm like, yeah, I am, because
Speaker 1: your rights should not be circumscribed in terms of just
Speaker 1: participating in society based on this COVID shot. It's a
Speaker 1: private matter, and if one business does it, then people
Speaker 1: are gonna say, Florida has passports and we don't allow them.
Speaker 1: The result of that was we had the biggest domestic
Speaker 1: tourism yere in and we had in the history of
Speaker 1: the state, and we had more foreign visitors to f
Speaker 1: or the New York City did. New York City has
Speaker 1: led for like the last twenty years. They wouldn't be
Speaker 1: coming here if they had to show paperwork to go
Speaker 1: get a hamburger. What we did was good for the individual,
Speaker 1: but it was also good for our state. And I
Speaker 1: think if you look at what we did to ban
Speaker 1: school districts from forcing the kids to get the COVID
Speaker 1: vacs very very early on, that gave so many parents
Speaker 1: a good peace of mind. We have had families moved
Speaker 1: to Florida just because of that issue. I don't know
Speaker 1: how it went from make it available to people, particularly
Speaker 1: senior citizens, to all of a sudden being you know,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna even be able to leave your home.
Speaker 1: Some people have said, if you don't get this COVID shot,
Speaker 1: I know, by the way the COVID say what you
Speaker 1: want about it, it does not prevent you from spreading
Speaker 1: it or getting infected anyways. And so I thought it
Speaker 1: was a huge, huge threat to freedom. I think we
Speaker 1: held the line, and I think because we held the line,
Speaker 1: I think other states in fall. In fact, it's been
Speaker 1: reported in some of these liberal publications that Fauci and
Speaker 1: some of these people in Biden's White House wanted him
Speaker 1: to do more draconian restrictions particularly with interstate travel and
Speaker 1: vax passes, and some of his political guy said, you know,
Speaker 1: if you do that, Governor de Santis is going to
Speaker 1: light you up, and I would have and good for
Speaker 1: you for that. I mean, you know, I think that's
Speaker 1: why conservatives are just loving hearing what you're doing, seeing
Speaker 1: what you're doing here in Florida, really holding the line
Speaker 1: and going on the offense. And right now we're sort
Speaker 1: of seeing these diverging viewpoints in the Republican Party, like
Speaker 1: particularly when you look at what's going on with Disney,
Speaker 1: and there's one school of thought where, you know, Republicans
Speaker 1: were based to sort of see those numbers that I
Speaker 1: mentioned with Rasmussen and understand that there's some of the
Speaker 1: left that would put you away or take your kids
Speaker 1: away for your beliefs, right, And then there's this other
Speaker 1: side of the Republican Party who thinks you can reason
Speaker 1: with people who hold those thoughts. You know, for instance,
Speaker 1: on Disney, Charles Cook with the National Review, so that
Speaker 1: there was no need for you in the Florida legislature,
Speaker 1: Dessault the earth, take revenge or make Florida's policies worse.
Speaker 1: You know, how should we approach today's left. Well, look,
Speaker 1: all I would say is if you think one California
Speaker 1: ace company having their own government and having separate rules
Speaker 1: from everybody else in Florida is good policy, I'd like
Speaker 1: to know how you're coming to that conclusion. I mean,
Speaker 1: the fact of the matter is this was an aberration
Speaker 1: when it was done in the sixties to draw them in,
Speaker 1: and maybe it was the right thing then, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but now, uh, it is just not justifiable at all.
Speaker 1: And so the question is is not that, oh, you're
Speaker 1: doing it to for quote revenge. The issue is is
Speaker 1: Disney really damaged his political standing in Florida. The legislature
Speaker 1: would never have considered doing this even six months ago.
Speaker 1: But because Disney is coming out and supporting transgender ideology
Speaker 1: and young kids, kids education. You saw the zoom calls
Speaker 1: where these higher ups in Disney are talking about, we
Speaker 1: have this agenda to really get in the kids programming.
Speaker 1: There's not a lot of defenders of Disney right now,
Speaker 1: so you're able to look at this with a fresh
Speaker 1: set of eyes and say, you know, what, is this
Speaker 1: really the partnership that the state of Florida once and
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was. I would have. I would
Speaker 1: have signed this bill if they had passed it two
Speaker 1: years a just on on substance, but particularly now when
Speaker 1: their corporate culture is dedicated to that. And they also
Speaker 1: came out saying they're going to make an admission to
Speaker 1: repeal parents rights in Florida. So yes, we signed the bill.
Speaker 1: We quote quote one politically whatever that means. But they
Speaker 1: said they're coming to really do damage in Florida, and
Speaker 1: so we've got to take that seriously. Why would corporations
Speaker 1: need to be involved in the first place in Florida
Speaker 1: politics or politics of a state. Well, I think what
Speaker 1: I've always said is these businesses have every right. It's
Speaker 1: a free country. You ever right, But if you get
Speaker 1: into the political thicket, then just understand. You know, we're
Speaker 1: gonna tussle, we're gonna fight back, and we're gonna expose
Speaker 1: what you do. When Disney criticizes Florida, they don't say
Speaker 1: a word about the Communist Party in China. In China,
Speaker 1: they don't say a word about the Weakers, they don't
Speaker 1: say a word about a lot of the places they
Speaker 1: do business in who will actually execute homosexuals, and so
Speaker 1: saying that there's somehow this big l v g q
Speaker 1: uh not when it affects their bottom line. They're willing
Speaker 1: to do business in a lot of very bad places.
Speaker 1: And so to single Florida out just by saying that
Speaker 1: you shouldn't have this transgender ideology and young kids classrooms
Speaker 1: was was really weird. But I think that what's happening
Speaker 1: in corporate America is some of the executives are woke
Speaker 1: and they think that they have this um. I think
Speaker 1: most of it, though, is there's cabals of employees who
Speaker 1: are very radical, and I don't think they represent the
Speaker 1: kind of the overall viewpoint of the employees. But I
Speaker 1: think most of these other employees are scared to speak
Speaker 1: out because if you speak out against this stuff, people
Speaker 1: will attack you. They'll come after you. Mean, for example,
Speaker 1: with the women's sports, you know we were very strong
Speaker 1: and saying what they did in that five yard freestyle
Speaker 1: to have a male swimmer who swam for three years
Speaker 1: on the men's team then switched to women, and you
Speaker 1: say that's the women's champion. You're depriving these other women
Speaker 1: of fair opportunities and wanted the second place finisher quote
Speaker 1: unquote should have won the Championshiship was from Florida. So
Speaker 1: we put out a proclamation and people would tell me, Governor,
Speaker 1: thanks for standing up for this. We're too scared to
Speaker 1: speak out because we're worried about the consequences. So I
Speaker 1: think what's happened in these companies is they just have
Speaker 1: a lot of momentum. There's really nobody that's pushing back
Speaker 1: again in STEM and so they end up having an
Speaker 1: outsized influence. But I do not think that woke impulse
Speaker 1: represents a majority of of employees, even in Disney in California,
Speaker 1: certainly not Disney in Orlando. I mean they when they
Speaker 1: did the big day of protest, they had one employee
Speaker 1: protests in Orlando. I think most of those employee, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think most of those employees either supported the bill
Speaker 1: or just didn't think Disney should get involved with it.
Speaker 1: And so but but I do think this is going
Speaker 1: to increasingly be an issue. And so what do we
Speaker 1: do as conservatives? Do we allow massive corporate power to
Speaker 1: get behind a very pernicious ideology and impose that on
Speaker 1: society and what we just say free market and don't
Speaker 1: do anything while everything is getting steamrolled. I don't think
Speaker 1: you can do that, So I think you get in
Speaker 1: the arena and you fight back, and that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1: Do you think corporations will think twice before weighing in
Speaker 1: on some of the stuff now? Think they will? In Florida? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think so too. You know, I wanted to ask
Speaker 1: you so that the Florida Department of Health has issued
Speaker 1: guidelines for treating gender dysmorphia, recommending against gender transition, purity
Speaker 1: block gers, and hormones. But would you support a state
Speaker 1: law banning any of those medical interventions for children? I
Speaker 1: would ban the Yeah, I would ban the sex shade
Speaker 1: of the operations. I think that it's something that you
Speaker 1: can't get a tattoo if you're if you're twelve years old.
Speaker 1: When they say gender firm and care me, what they
Speaker 1: mean a lot of times is you are really you're
Speaker 1: catstrating a young boy, you're sterilizing a young girl. You're
Speaker 1: you're doing missectomies for for these very young girls. And
Speaker 1: here's the thing what our guidance pointed to in the
Speaker 1: Surgeon General did a great job for these young kids.
Speaker 1: Eight percent of the cases resolve themselves as they grow up.
Speaker 1: And so you're doing things that are permanently altering them
Speaker 1: and then they're not going to be able to reverse that,
Speaker 1: and so I don't think it's appropriate for kids at all.
Speaker 1: I think the guidance is right, but I think that
Speaker 1: there should be additional protections because you know, when you're
Speaker 1: growing up, there are things that you know, it's an
Speaker 1: awkward time, and it seems like there there's a concerted
Speaker 1: effort ince society to push these kids in to do
Speaker 1: some type of medical intervention. In our judgment, that's not healthy.
Speaker 1: Well's gonna ask you, why do you think the left
Speaker 1: is digging their heels in so hard on some of
Speaker 1: these issues. I mean, there's literally a Netflix series right
Speaker 1: now called He's Expecting, which you know, I wasn't aware
Speaker 1: that's possible, but you know, and obviously they have attacked
Speaker 1: to you for the parental rights bill. You know, they've
Speaker 1: stood behind men playing in women's sports. So why why
Speaker 1: are they digging their heels in on this? I can't
Speaker 1: explain it. I just think they're they have a very
Speaker 1: militant left to ideology. I think their view is, you know,
Speaker 1: they want to assault the earth of society and upend
Speaker 1: all these different conventions. I mean, you know, the House
Speaker 1: of representatives under Pelosi. At the beginning of this current Congress,
Speaker 1: they voted to ban using the words on the house
Speaker 1: floor mother, sister, daughter, things like that. They said it
Speaker 1: was not inclusive enough. And I think most people see
Speaker 1: that and they're like, this is nuts. When they see
Speaker 1: that picture of the swim, you know, champion versus and
Speaker 1: then you have the other three girls hugging off to
Speaker 1: the side. They're looking at that. They're like, come on,
Speaker 1: when you tell me that a man can get pregnant,
Speaker 1: I'm not down with that. I know that that's not true.
Speaker 1: So I think it's been very a damaging to them
Speaker 1: politically because the more the left is, i mean fairly
Speaker 1: tagged with those views, I think it's abhorrent to a
Speaker 1: lot of folks. And I think that's part of the
Speaker 1: reason why you see so many particularly working class constituencies
Speaker 1: fleeing the left and gonna probably vote Republican this year.
Speaker 1: Quit commercial break and then back with Governor Rhnde Stantis.
Speaker 1: I think if you're out there having to explain where
Speaker 1: you're not a groomer like, you might be losing the debate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think it's interesting because the parents rights in
Speaker 1: education we did to stop woke AC was one of
Speaker 1: my big initiatives, and we also did curriculum transparency. Every
Speaker 1: parent has the right to know what curriculum is being
Speaker 1: used in the schools. You think that would be common sense.
Speaker 1: The left fights you on that. They believe when your
Speaker 1: kid goes to school, they get their hooks into the kids,
Speaker 1: and you, as a parents should budd out. And that's
Speaker 1: a that's a seminal battle that we're fighting parents rights
Speaker 1: in education. When they were doing it, you know, it
Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily something that that I was terribly involved with
Speaker 1: because I didn't realize the extent to which this was
Speaker 1: happening in these young grades. But you see the curriculum.
Speaker 1: They have the gender unicorn which says, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: you can do this or that, the gender bread man
Speaker 1: they have that clearly is all geared towards very very
Speaker 1: young kids, these kids that are in first and second
Speaker 1: third grade. And I was like, when the media started
Speaker 1: making a big deal about it it was going through
Speaker 1: the legislative process, I had my staff pull the language
Speaker 1: and I read it. I'm like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: Are they really going to fight this battle saying that
Speaker 1: we need to have sexuality and transgender and grades K
Speaker 1: through three. It's like, I can't believe that that would
Speaker 1: be a winning issue, and so I started speaking out,
Speaker 1: and we you know, we made sure it got across
Speaker 1: the finish line, be signed the legislation. But I do
Speaker 1: think that there's a school of thought that is, you
Speaker 1: gotta get this ideology into them when they're young. If
Speaker 1: you don't, the parents are going to raise them differently,
Speaker 1: and then it's gonna be harder to kind of change
Speaker 1: their due. So I think it's you know, I don't
Speaker 1: think it's necessarily you know, from a sexual perspective. I
Speaker 1: think what it is is an ideological perspective. They're trying
Speaker 1: to grow people to be uh more ideological in their viewpoints,
Speaker 1: and they think starting younger is going to get them there.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's indoctrination, of course, and that's when Florida,
Speaker 1: that's the bright line we draw. We want quality education.
Speaker 1: We have no tolerance for indoctrination in our schools. That's
Speaker 1: why we're doing the critical race theory. That's why we're
Speaker 1: doing stuff with the curriculum transparency. That's why we're making
Speaker 1: sure that all the textbooks meet state standards in Florida,
Speaker 1: and we are going to be vigorous and enforcing that
Speaker 1: distinction between education and indoctrination. It seems like people were
Speaker 1: sort of very submissive and taking a lot with COVID,
Speaker 1: and then once they started seeing some of the stuff
Speaker 1: their kids were being taught with critical it's sort of
Speaker 1: race theory. It's sort of woke a sleeping beast, right,
Speaker 1: Like we saw with Virginia, parents really rising up, going
Speaker 1: to school boards, getting more involved, and you really just
Speaker 1: speaking out in a way that they weren't about some
Speaker 1: of these COVID issues. I mean, where do you think
Speaker 1: this goes with? You know, now they're pushing against parental
Speaker 1: rights on this transgender stuff, and where does this all go. Well.
Speaker 1: I think what they've done is they have really changed
Speaker 1: the political landscape to where now some of the most
Speaker 1: important elections for voters are these school board races. If
Speaker 1: you go back even four years ago, no one really
Speaker 1: cared about the school board I mean some did, but
Speaker 1: they were not hot button issues. They were not high profile.
Speaker 1: These are in Florida. They're gonna be some of the
Speaker 1: most high profile races. Part of the reason is our
Speaker 1: school boards races are nonpartisan, so you'll have these kind
Speaker 1: of deep red counties that will elect somebody who is
Speaker 1: running kind of as a fake conservative, but really back
Speaker 1: by the Union and the Left. They get in and
Speaker 1: they force mass kids. They have the the the indoctrination
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. So now parents are on high
Speaker 1: alert about this, and I think you're going to see,
Speaker 1: particularly Republicans, they're gonna come out with a vengeance and
Speaker 1: they are going to want to make sure they hold
Speaker 1: some of these bad school board members accountable for what
Speaker 1: they did over the last two years. But I think
Speaker 1: it's a beautiful thing because that your parents should be
Speaker 1: involved in their kid's life. They should be involved in
Speaker 1: what their kids are being taught. Its parency is a
Speaker 1: good thing. And you know, speaking of fatherhood, so you
Speaker 1: recently signed a bill addressed the addressing the decline of fatherhood.
Speaker 1: You have three adorable children. Why do you think we've
Speaker 1: had this decline of fatherhood and a decline in recognizing
Speaker 1: the importance of it. Well, I think if you look back,
Speaker 1: you go back to the nineteen fifties, I mean, the
Speaker 1: family was very strong across the board, and I think
Speaker 1: you've seen increasingly fewer and fewer kids have fathers. In
Speaker 1: the home. You know, people will point to how that's
Speaker 1: happened in the black community, and it has, but it's
Speaker 1: happened in all communities to a certain extent. And so
Speaker 1: I think it's a problem, you know, that's not just
Speaker 1: confined to the inner city. I think it's something that
Speaker 1: is we've really seen society wide. The fact of the
Speaker 1: matter is, when you have a father in the home, uh,
Speaker 1: the kids chance of dropping out of school declines, the
Speaker 1: kids chance to get trouble with the law declines, the
Speaker 1: chances they will do drugs declines. And these are just
Speaker 1: very very powerful metrics that are repeated across every community,
Speaker 1: every state, UH, and every country. And so our view
Speaker 1: is is we want to make sure that we're promoting
Speaker 1: this is something that parents understand. Fathers understand this is
Speaker 1: their responsibility they need to be involved, but also providing
Speaker 1: the type of resources that would help some of these
Speaker 1: guys get back into their kids lives. So, for example,
Speaker 1: one of the things that bill does is it allows
Speaker 1: some of these nonprofit groups to apply for grants. So
Speaker 1: we had Tony Dungee was the former coach of the
Speaker 1: Colts and the Bucks. Great guy. He has on all
Speaker 1: pro Dad's Group, and so we've worked with them since
Speaker 1: I've been governor. They do a great job. And he
Speaker 1: told the story of why he founded that because he
Speaker 1: went to a prison with one of the ministers in
Speaker 1: the Tampa Bay area when who's the coach of the Bucks,
Speaker 1: and he looked at all everybody who had gotten in
Speaker 1: trouble and he noticed that and what in his words,
Speaker 1: he's like, it wasn't because they were poor, or because
Speaker 1: of their race, or because of their religion. The reason
Speaker 1: they ended up in prison was because they did not
Speaker 1: have a father in the home. That was the one
Speaker 1: thing that was there. And so their organization really works
Speaker 1: to help to help some of these dads play a
Speaker 1: more meaningful role in their life. And so there's a
Speaker 1: lot we talked about in politics and public policy. If
Speaker 1: you could snap your fingers and just guarantee that every
Speaker 1: kid had a loving father in the home, you would
Speaker 1: see huge benefits and all these other metrics in societies.
Speaker 1: It's not that simple to do. What we did is
Speaker 1: not like what we did is going to wholly solve
Speaker 1: the problem. But that basic reality about whether the father's
Speaker 1: president involved or not is going to tell you a
Speaker 1: lot about that kid's prospects in life. I mean I
Speaker 1: was kind of a handful growing up, if people can
Speaker 1: imagine sis. I was very fortunate to have, you know,
Speaker 1: two parents who have supported me and kept steering me
Speaker 1: in a better direction. Quick break back with my governor
Speaker 1: and the governor of Florida, Governor Ron de Santis, what's
Speaker 1: your favorite thing about being a father? You know, I
Speaker 1: think it's just being able to to watch them have
Speaker 1: new experiences. I mean I think, like, you know, you
Speaker 1: take them to to go to a baseball game and
Speaker 1: their eyes light up. You take them to that. We
Speaker 1: take them to like the fairs in Florida. So we
Speaker 1: took them to Florida State Fair, the Strawberry Festival, playing City,
Speaker 1: Clay County, you name it, and they get so happy.
Speaker 1: So we're fortunate. I mean, on the one hand, we
Speaker 1: are unique family situation five four And to our kids,
Speaker 1: their whole real uh recollections are all since I've been governor.
Speaker 1: I mean my daughter had just turned to right after
Speaker 1: I had gotten elected, and so this is kind of
Speaker 1: their frame of reference. And you know, I also often
Speaker 1: think about, like, you know, how is that going to
Speaker 1: work as they grow up? I mean, we want to
Speaker 1: make sure that they're grounded and know that that's kind
Speaker 1: of not a normal experience. It certainly, and I was
Speaker 1: a blue collar kid growing up, and it was the
Speaker 1: farthest thing that I would have thought of, So we
Speaker 1: think about that. So that's a challenge. But the good
Speaker 1: thing is is we're able to do a lot of
Speaker 1: different stuff just by going around the state and showing them.
Speaker 1: Offering my oldest daughter to press conferences. She will just
Speaker 1: stand right next to the podium, behaves very well. I do.
Speaker 1: I do the questions other people, and then I'll take
Speaker 1: her to grab my scream or whatever, and then we
Speaker 1: go back. And so they're able to get these experiences
Speaker 1: and then to see how they react about it and
Speaker 1: to see kind of what they really like and what
Speaker 1: makes them happy. Is something that I that I just
Speaker 1: get a lot of a lot of gratification about. But
Speaker 1: it's a big responsibility and it's something that my wife
Speaker 1: and I take serious. You know, we had our first
Speaker 1: daughter right before my third term in Congress, and so
Speaker 1: the first two years, you go up three nights of
Speaker 1: the week, you come back and whatever. You spend probably
Speaker 1: more time in your home district, and not that that
Speaker 1: was ideal. But the minute we had Madison, I'm in
Speaker 1: d C. And I'm like, what the hell am I
Speaker 1: doing here? Like, honestly, it's like talking on zoom. Just
Speaker 1: that are talking on the FaceTime just doesn't work. And
Speaker 1: so I was like, all right. That was one of
Speaker 1: the quite frankly, the reasons I ran for governor. It's
Speaker 1: more family friendly. I can go out and here we're
Speaker 1: here in Miami together, in Miami area. I can be
Speaker 1: back home and I have an engagement tonight. It just
Speaker 1: so happens. But normally i'm home. I mean it worked
Speaker 1: for me. I mean I'm home doing a lot of
Speaker 1: different stuff, even having a full day around the state,
Speaker 1: And you could not do that in Congress. And so
Speaker 1: but it's something that we're we really work hard to
Speaker 1: make sure that we're spending time. You've mentioned you grew
Speaker 1: up in a blue color family. Talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about that, Talk a little bit about your childhood. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: I mean we I grew up in Dunedin, Florida, which
Speaker 1: is in Panellas County, that Ampa St. Pete area. I
Speaker 1: was born in Jacksonville. My mother was a nurse. My
Speaker 1: father worked for Nielsen TV ratings and so back then,
Speaker 1: you know, the Nielsen families had to put a box
Speaker 1: on their TV in any given area to be able
Speaker 1: to rate what they were watching. So that was what
Speaker 1: he did, and so we That job took us from
Speaker 1: Jacksonville to Orlando, and then when I was in first grade,
Speaker 1: we ended up in Dunedin in the Tampa Bay area,
Speaker 1: and so I grew up. There was great place to
Speaker 1: grow up in the sense I love baseball and it
Speaker 1: was a great baseball town. And we did well and
Speaker 1: Little League go into the Little League World Series. I
Speaker 1: had a good program in high school. It ended up
Speaker 1: sending me to play baseball at Yale. But you know,
Speaker 1: I never had anything handed to me. I mean I
Speaker 1: had to work hard. I never expected anything to be
Speaker 1: handed to me. And I think I was able to
Speaker 1: develop that work ethic as a young age and that
Speaker 1: really propelled me as I got into college, beyond the military,
Speaker 1: and then even as as a candidate for for office,
Speaker 1: really uh having to earn it. The mentality has kind
Speaker 1: of changed, though. I Mean you look at a lot
Speaker 1: of these younger generations, they sort of think that things
Speaker 1: should be handed Tom And here's the thing too, and
Speaker 1: it kind of plays in the CRT. So they will
Speaker 1: tell certain kids, you know, based on your race, you're oppressed,
Speaker 1: and they will say how bad the country is. Well,
Speaker 1: if I'm a young kid and you're telling me I
Speaker 1: have no chance, why would I want to work hard? Then?
Speaker 1: The reason I worked hard is because I believed if
Speaker 1: I worked hard, I would be able to make things happen,
Speaker 1: I'd be able to open doors, I'd be able to
Speaker 1: have more opportunities. And so what we're doing here today,
Speaker 1: what I said at the event is do not let
Speaker 1: anybody tell you you can't succeed in Florida. You can succeed.
Speaker 1: And the most important thing to your success is what
Speaker 1: you do as an individual. Are you gonna work hard?
Speaker 1: Are you going to make sure you don't waste the
Speaker 1: talent that God gave you? Are you gonna get everything
Speaker 1: out of what you got? And if you do, and
Speaker 1: if you make that decision and you follow through, you
Speaker 1: will find success. You may not find success immediately, you
Speaker 1: may have some doors closed in your face, but eventually
Speaker 1: you will get through the door. That has got to
Speaker 1: be the message. You know, Look, if the kid honestly,
Speaker 1: kids honestly don't believe they have a chance, that our
Speaker 1: country is bad or all this other stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: then I can understand why they wouldn't want to put
Speaker 1: in a lot of effort because it wasn't easy. I mean,
Speaker 1: I did all kinds of low paying jobs as an
Speaker 1: eight year old kid, and I had to do it
Speaker 1: to make my way in the world. And I would
Speaker 1: never have done that if I thought there was no
Speaker 1: reason to do it. Yeah, I started off as a
Speaker 1: staff assistant. I always like to say I was saving
Speaker 1: the world one flag requested. You know, it's sort of
Speaker 1: a bankleish job, but you know it got me to
Speaker 1: where I am now, so you know it was fun.
Speaker 1: So I that mentality is probably, as you said, prepared
Speaker 1: you for the job that you have because you face
Speaker 1: a lot of criticism. Right, So you've got some of
Speaker 1: your critics. Nicki Freed called you a dictator. The Democratic
Speaker 1: governor of Colorado called you a socialist. How would you
Speaker 1: define your governing philosophy? Well, first, I would just say
Speaker 1: how ridiculous some of these criticisms are. And you can tell, like,
Speaker 1: if you're over the target and they're lobbying these these
Speaker 1: phony criticisms, then they must not have substance to critique you. On.
Speaker 1: I mean the idea that taking away special rights for
Speaker 1: one favored corporation is socialist. That's the opposite of that.
Speaker 1: It's making them live under the same laws as everybody else.
Speaker 1: She'll say. You know, when you have people say like
Speaker 1: I'm dictating just because I'm leading and winning, because I'm
Speaker 1: getting things through the legislature, I have a good relationship
Speaker 1: with them. We put big win after big win on
Speaker 1: the board, and they will say that I'm dictating the
Speaker 1: outcomes when no, I'm going through the constitutional process to
Speaker 1: be able to enact really significant legislation. And that's what
Speaker 1: you should want to do. So when I became governor,
Speaker 1: I sat down in the in the desk the first
Speaker 1: day and I said, I looked around. I said, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever s ob succeeds me, they ain't going to have
Speaker 1: very much to do because I'm gonna take every meat
Speaker 1: there is off the bone. I'm gonna get involved and
Speaker 1: do all the issues I can. I'm going to make
Speaker 1: the most you know, in Florida you have at most
Speaker 1: eight years to four year terms and there's a term limit.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to make sure we get all that
Speaker 1: we can get out of this and that means leading
Speaker 1: on issues and not sitting around and waiting to see
Speaker 1: how it develops politically. For example, I have never taken
Speaker 1: a poll since I've been governor. I just don't. I
Speaker 1: believe what I believe. I have confidence that if you
Speaker 1: set the vision and you execute that, people will support
Speaker 1: that if it's the right thing to do. If I
Speaker 1: sat around and waited on poll results all day, I'd
Speaker 1: be paralyzed. I wouldn't be able to go out when
Speaker 1: I see things that need action. Yeah, we debate, and
Speaker 1: we're deliberative about the type of policy we want. We
Speaker 1: make sure we formulate good policy. But man, I'm out there, um,
Speaker 1: and I'm leading. And that's the thing. When you're leading
Speaker 1: and the left attacking you, that is good feedback because
Speaker 1: it means you're over the target. I mean, if if
Speaker 1: some of these left wing outlets like MSNBC, if they're
Speaker 1: ignoring me, and then that must mean I'm not getting
Speaker 1: very much done. If they're constantly attacking me, while they're
Speaker 1: attacking me for a reason because they know I'm winning
Speaker 1: and they know Florida's really setting the standard across the country. Well,
Speaker 1: and what's hilarious, m you were called death Stantus and
Speaker 1: then originally with COVID because you're taking positions that were
Speaker 1: contrary that's the word to the group think narrative and
Speaker 1: what other states were doing, particularly left wing states and
Speaker 1: this left wing administration. But then everyone sort of came
Speaker 1: around to where you were originally. Well, I think it
Speaker 1: became a cottage industry. Whether it was schools, whether it
Speaker 1: was making sure businesses were open, whether it was making
Speaker 1: sure that seniors were prioritized for medication, whether it was
Speaker 1: banning vax mandates. We would do something, there'd be a
Speaker 1: spasm in the media and amongst the left, and then
Speaker 1: six to twelve months later, everybody else would end up
Speaker 1: doing what Florida was doing all along. And that was
Speaker 1: something that was pretty much. Uh, they became a cottage
Speaker 1: industry throughout the last two years. Like how annoying was that?
Speaker 1: Though seeing all the criticism and then knowing that Andrew
Speaker 1: Cuomo literally sent elderly people to their death, it doesn't
Speaker 1: bother me because a lot of these legacy outlets, they're
Speaker 1: not trustworthy. I don't consume any of it, and that
Speaker 1: would be true if I wasn't governor. Why would I
Speaker 1: want to do that? When I know what they're doing
Speaker 1: is trying to concoct narratives. They're not interested in telling
Speaker 1: the truth. So you knew what they were doing by
Speaker 1: trying to elevate Cuomo. But if you think about the
Speaker 1: two people they tried to elevate the most, Cuomo and
Speaker 1: Fauci not the best judge of who to try to
Speaker 1: elevate during this because obviously quota well, you know, like
Speaker 1: COVID is something you can't quote, just stop it. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was a highly contagious respiratory virus. But if you
Speaker 1: are taking somebody and you're sending a sick person into
Speaker 1: the most vulnerable population nursing home residence, that's on the governor.
Speaker 1: When you have somebody like Fauci who's agitating for school closures,
Speaker 1: who's attacking me in Florida for having businesses open, knowing
Speaker 1: that if I followed him, we would add hundreds of
Speaker 1: thousands of people that would still be out of work today.
Speaker 1: You know that is on him in the destruction that's
Speaker 1: happened for people that have followed his policies. Now, he's
Speaker 1: the worst. Um. Would you ever run for president? Would
Speaker 1: you ever want to be a president? I've never been
Speaker 1: asked that question before. It's it's it's it's funny. So
Speaker 1: you know the interesting thing is is, um, I'm running
Speaker 1: for for twenty two, so you'll be a Florida voter. No, No, obviously,
Speaker 1: I'm one of my last for that and so we
Speaker 1: do it. Um. But you know the interesting thing is,
Speaker 1: you know people will have paraphernalia about me in the future.
Speaker 1: People always bring it up to me and stuff, But
Speaker 1: you know, I have never done anything along those lines.
Speaker 1: I've basically just done my job. And so I think
Speaker 1: what it shows is is that people just want to
Speaker 1: see people that are willing to lead and willing to
Speaker 1: fight for the people. Knowing you're gonna face arrows, knowing
Speaker 1: you're gonna be able to uh to to to have
Speaker 1: to be in the in the in the kitchen when
Speaker 1: it gets hot. But who's gonna stand there and lead
Speaker 1: us out of this morass? And so we just do
Speaker 1: what we can do to help Florida. But it really
Speaker 1: has had implications beyond the country. And really I get
Speaker 1: people that right into Florida from other countries saying we
Speaker 1: look to Florida as kind of the beacon. And that's
Speaker 1: not something that I've tried to do. I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to do my job here. But it has had a
Speaker 1: resonance and it's it's something, quite frankly, is surprising to
Speaker 1: me because when I got elected governor, I wasn't even
Speaker 1: that well known. And then as I was governor before COVID,
Speaker 1: I was known, but I was not known the way
Speaker 1: the way I've become since COVID and all the other
Speaker 1: issues that that we've taken on. So yeah, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a great answer to your club. Come on, give me
Speaker 1: something that was a great you're avoiding it any I mean,
Speaker 1: any desire at any point. So I've done nothing to
Speaker 1: do anything other than just do do my job here.
Speaker 1: This is a good job. I mean, I think if
Speaker 1: you look at political jobs, I don't know that there'd
Speaker 1: be very many that have been better, especially at this
Speaker 1: point in time in the state's history, where we're really
Speaker 1: doing things that this state has never done. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of excitement. I think that after the election, my
Speaker 1: goal would be, you know, if we if we win
Speaker 1: the election, really big people like you who analyze these
Speaker 1: things are going to say the days of Florida me
Speaker 1: and a swing state are over. Florida is a red state,
Speaker 1: and I think that's because of a lot of what
Speaker 1: we've done. I mean, I hope so because I moved
Speaker 1: down here, so I'm now a Floridian, so I want
Speaker 1: to keep living. Well, here's what I'll tell you. Since COVID,
Speaker 1: we've led the nation and in state my in migration.
Speaker 1: If you look at all forty nine other states and
Speaker 1: who has come from those states to Florida, each one
Speaker 1: of the forty nine states has had more Republicans moved
Speaker 1: to Florida than Democrats. New York, California, Illinois, you name it.
Speaker 1: The results since I've been governor. We were down through
Speaker 1: inner thousand registrations to the Democrats when I got elected.
Speaker 1: Now we're up a hundred and twenty thousand registrations. That's
Speaker 1: a four hundred thousand registration shift in favor of Republicans
Speaker 1: since I've been governor. At this pace, we're probably gonna
Speaker 1: be over five hundred thousand by the election. So that
Speaker 1: is a huge sea change. So that's telling me the
Speaker 1: people like you who came for a reason are the norm.
Speaker 1: And some of the people who would come from these
Speaker 1: blue state dumpster fires and then still vote the same
Speaker 1: way when they come here that they are indefinitely the
Speaker 1: distinct minority, which is which is a good thing. It's
Speaker 1: a very good thing. So I wanted to ask you,
Speaker 1: how how is your wife doing? I know she recently
Speaker 1: had a cancer battle. Now she is cancer free. How
Speaker 1: how's she doing. So she's doing well. So she had
Speaker 1: to go through a lot of the treatments and all
Speaker 1: that she was declared cancer free, but they still do
Speaker 1: the radiation stuff and so she's in the process of
Speaker 1: finishing that. So basically at this time next week she's
Speaker 1: going to be done with with everything, and she'll still
Speaker 1: have to go in and get periodic tests and scans.
Speaker 1: But uh, it's not an easy thing to go through.
Speaker 1: But but from a prognosis perspective, I think it's gone
Speaker 1: about as well as we could have hoped. But I
Speaker 1: think you know, one thing I would just say to
Speaker 1: women out there, having gone through this with her, is
Speaker 1: you know this is something that you can be you know,
Speaker 1: you get that diagnosis, it's it changes your world. It's
Speaker 1: something that's very scary for a lot of women, of course,
Speaker 1: but just know that that they do very well with
Speaker 1: this and it's not going to be easy to go through.
Speaker 1: But but you're gonna get through it. And I think
Speaker 1: my wife has really been an inspiration for a lot
Speaker 1: of people in this state. You know, the hospitals will
Speaker 1: go to will say, some of the ladies that have
Speaker 1: come in since she went public with that have said, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, the first lady's got it, she's battling it.
Speaker 1: I got a battle it too, And so you know,
Speaker 1: I'm proud of her for the way she's handled it. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a private matter, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: she thought that she could help publicly to talk about
Speaker 1: kind of her her situation, and I think it's had
Speaker 1: a very positive impact throughout the state, said, I've had
Speaker 1: the pleasure meeting. I mean, she's just an incredibly kind
Speaker 1: and lovely woman, which is obviously why you married her.
Speaker 1: Uh So I want to so I heard that she
Speaker 1: is actually at your close is political advisor? Is that true? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean here's the thing, Um, she's got a very
Speaker 1: good nose for bs and she's kind of like you know,
Speaker 1: Middle America, like you know, type of voter that we need.
Speaker 1: I mean, she's conservative, of course, but she really sees
Speaker 1: through a lot of the BS. And so there'll be
Speaker 1: times when she'll something will happen. You're like, you gotta
Speaker 1: be kidding me that they're doing this, and she got good.
Speaker 1: But it's I think people say that because you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not a consultant driven governor. I mean, I'm a
Speaker 1: I'm a principal driven governor. Conviction driven. That's what's driving me.
Speaker 1: I'm not calling political consultants saying, hey, what do I
Speaker 1: need to do? What do I need to do? How
Speaker 1: do I need to handle this? I just handle it
Speaker 1: and I make I do what I need to do.
Speaker 1: Um and so. But she is a great, uh kind
Speaker 1: of sounding board for what happens, and they'll be It's
Speaker 1: funny because there'll be times when we go out there
Speaker 1: if we really do some good singers, you know, if
Speaker 1: I'll walk home and you know, she'll give me a
Speaker 1: high five. And she gets fired up at some of
Speaker 1: the stuff because she believes and a lot of the
Speaker 1: stuff that we're doing, you know, she really believes in
Speaker 1: and she uh, you know, the Disney stuff really and
Speaker 1: she's a huge, huge Disney fan or whole life. And
Speaker 1: then to see kind of them do all this, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like it stinks, But I know that's probably true.
Speaker 1: For a lot of families throughout throughout the country having
Speaker 1: to see this and just wondering, like, you know, what
Speaker 1: happened there? Well, And that's you know, sort of like
Speaker 1: a lot of things in the country, like again that
Speaker 1: Folix says a series called He's Expecting It. You know,
Speaker 1: we sort of live in this clown world a little bit.
Speaker 1: It's sometimes it's hard to imagine that you know, these
Speaker 1: things are going on. The thing about it, though, and
Speaker 1: I think what we've done has shown this. There's a
Speaker 1: desire for truth. People know something is off kilter. They
Speaker 1: know that they are allied to by a lot of
Speaker 1: the powers that be and the media and the bureaucracy
Speaker 1: and all this. They know that, and so when you
Speaker 1: come through and speak the truth, you can cut through
Speaker 1: the clutter, because it is powerful when you're living in
Speaker 1: an age where so much of what's true is they
Speaker 1: try to suppress and they try to impose these fake
Speaker 1: narratives on us. And I think that's one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why we've been able to do good, just because
Speaker 1: we're telling the truth and people are responding to it.
Speaker 1: I mean, Governor, I feel like you are on the truth.
Speaker 1: With Lisa Booth, that's literally the reason why I named
Speaker 1: the podcast, and the whole purpose of this podcast is
Speaker 1: trying to get to that truth in this insane, environed
Speaker 1: me living. You know, one more question I want to
Speaker 1: I feel like conservative media should put more folk. Florida's
Speaker 1: really sort of the epicenter of the Republican Party right now,
Speaker 1: and you know, less of an emphasis on DC or
Speaker 1: New York. And I mean, I think if you look
Speaker 1: at what's going on in the state, we've done more
Speaker 1: legislatively in Florida than almost all these other red states combined.
Speaker 1: I mean, some of them have done well. I mean,
Speaker 1: like you know, Tennessee, Georgia. You know, they've done some
Speaker 1: good stuff, But I mean we are leading on issue
Speaker 1: after issue here. What starts in Florida, usually other states
Speaker 1: will then follow the mantle. And it's not we didn't
Speaker 1: ask for that responsibility, but that's basically what's happened. And
Speaker 1: so I think this is ground zero in terms of
Speaker 1: conservative political movements. Part of it was that built on
Speaker 1: it was when COVID was here, these political groups, this
Speaker 1: is the only place they could have meetings, and so
Speaker 1: like all these major groups, they're having their conferences in
Speaker 1: Florida one. We were happy to host those. But yes,
Speaker 1: I think Florida is where it's at and a lot
Speaker 1: of people have got a lot of people in your
Speaker 1: UH profession have gravitated here who were involved in politics
Speaker 1: and commentary, and we're proud of that, and so we
Speaker 1: we encourage more people to take an interest in what's
Speaker 1: going on in Tallahassee and throughout the state. Well, Virginian
Speaker 1: by birth, which has gotten better with Nan, but you know,
Speaker 1: Floridian by choice, sir, You know, I know you've got
Speaker 1: a really busy day, You've got a luck going on.
Speaker 1: Anything else you want to leave my listeners with before
Speaker 1: we go, Well, look, I think we've got a lot
Speaker 1: of of of problems in the in the country. I
Speaker 1: think you look at some of these big institutions. We
Speaker 1: see it with corporate America, big tech censorship. We see
Speaker 1: our bureaucracy totally out of control. Obviously, Brandon in the
Speaker 1: White House is a total disaster. Um, it's tough to
Speaker 1: be on the side of truth right now because you've
Speaker 1: got a lot of people who will come down on you.
Speaker 1: They'll attack you. You've gotta face smears and and flaming
Speaker 1: arrow and all this stuff. But we're really called upon
Speaker 1: right now to yes, stand for the right things, but
Speaker 1: show courage, show backbone, and not back down from these people.
Speaker 1: I mean, if we back down, they're going to steamroll us.
Speaker 1: So when I look for candidates, who are you know,
Speaker 1: could be promising, that's one of the things I look for. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can tell me these things, but everyone says those things.
Speaker 1: Who's running as a Republican? When the cleg lights get hot?
Speaker 1: Are you gonna stand strong? Are you're gonna fold up
Speaker 1: your tent? And we need people that will stand strong.
Speaker 1: And I think in Florida we've been willing to stand
Speaker 1: time after time when it gets hot, you know, when
Speaker 1: we're facing the fire and we do not back down.
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like we should end it with
Speaker 1: a let's go Brandon. You know, it's funny the media
Speaker 1: doesn't like that when you say Brandon. But what I
Speaker 1: tell him is as long as he's treating my state
Speaker 1: the way he is, stiffing seniors of relief from disasters,
Speaker 1: not doing anything to lower gas prices, allowing all these
Speaker 1: illegals across the border, as long as he's doing that,
Speaker 1: he's Brandon to me, let's go Brandon, Governor, it's an honor,
Speaker 1: such a fan of yours, and thank you for being
Speaker 1: such an amazing governor, and thank you for your time.
Speaker 1: It's an honor. And thanks for being a Floridian. Oh
Speaker 1: you're welcome. Thank you. M Hey, guys, I hope you
Speaker 1: enjoyed that interview. I found it fascinating. Governor Rohnda Santas
Speaker 1: is brilliant. I was so impressed by him, so engaged
Speaker 1: during the interview. I hope you were too. And this
Speaker 1: Thursday we have Steve Bannon, another amazing interview, another amazing
Speaker 1: conversation for you. I think you guys are going to
Speaker 1: love it. I wanted to thank you for listening at home.
Speaker 1: If you haven't already, please subscribe to the podcast. Anywhere
Speaker 1: you find your podcast you can subscribe. I also want
Speaker 1: to thank John Castle, my producer, You're my boy Blue.
Speaker 1: Thank you to everyone at home. Thanks again for listening
Speaker 1: and tune into the Steve Banner interview coming up on Thursday.