The Florida governor is
making waves
even before he's
expected to jump
into the presidential race.
DeSantis today signed a bill to defund
diversity programs at Florida colleges,
a clear response
to critical race theory
being taught in classrooms.
He's also changing
Florida law
to allow himself to campaign
while serving as governor
and to reduce transparency over his state
spending and travel.
DeSantis is also stepping
in to ward off of his turf,
sending migrants
who come to Florida
to states run by Democrats
and wading into a New York City case
praising the Marine
veteran
now charged in the subway
chokehold death.
He also barnstormed the trail in Iowa
this weekend
when the 45th president
canceled a rally there over
whether concerns
Donald Trump is taking notice
and taking aim at DeSantis.
And DeSantis is indirectly firing back.
We must reject
the culture of losing
that has infected our party
in recent years.
If we focus the election on the past
or on other side issues,
then I think the Democrats
are going to beat us again.
Trump was asked for his response
in a new interview and declared, quote,
I'm not at all caught up in the past.
And second of all,
I'm doing much better against Biden
than he has in the polls.
And third of all,
I did very well in the midterms.
Ron's not a winner
because Ron without me
wouldn't have won today.
DeSantis was asked
Do you think Trump lost in 20?
20?
This was his answer.
Look at the last
however many election cycles. 20, 18.
We lost the House.
We lost the Senate.
20, 20.
Biden becomes president. Ergo.
Excuse me.
We lost the Senate in 20, 20.
Biden becomes president.
And it's done a huge amount of damage.
Very unpopular in 20, 22.
And we are supposed
to have this big red wave.
And other than like Florida and Iowa.
I didn't see a red wave
across this country.
And so I think the party has developed
a culture of losing
Joining me now is former Trump
adviser Steve Cortez.
Thank you
so much for joining the program, Steve.
Sarah, thank you for having me.
All right.
So, Steve, you were a staunch, unwavering
supporter of Donald Trump
during the presidency
and even before he was president.
Why are you backing Ron DeSantis now
instead of Donald Trump?
Sarah, listen, I was honored to advocate
for President Trump
and for the America
First Movement broadly for many years.
I now believe that this is the next
natural phase of that movement.
And by that
I mean that
I believe that Governor DeSantis
is the most electable,
most conservative candidate
out there who can both win
the general election,
as well as govern effectively,
as actually implement
through discipline and focus
the most conservative policy
agenda possible
I believe he has proven that
by his track record in Florida.
And for that reason, I'm
taking the personal risk here
of advocating
for the underdog,
for the political renegade the outsider
who is Ron DeSantis.
So I have to ask you,
Governor
DeSantis has not actually announced
he's actually running for president.
So I guess the question is,
do you know something we don't know?
I mean, has he told you?
Yes, I am planning to do this
or giving you any indication that, yeah,
he's going to run
Well, Sarah, it's
not my
place to talk about private conversations
with Governor DeSantis.
I will let him make that announcement
at the appropriate time.
But I think any
but I think any any reasonable observer
will conclude that Ron DeSantis is doing
everything that a person does
to prepare to make this run for office.
So I fully expect that
that is forthcoming
in the coming days and weeks.
And I personally very,
very excited about it because, again,
I believe that, look,
the country is in a very miserable mood
right now.
And that's not Steve Cortez's opinion.
That's what all of the relevant
polling shows us.
For example, 70%
of the American people in a Fox News poll
say that the economy is getting worse
for this for their family.
So we are in a very depressed state
in the country right now.
It will not help the country psyche.
It will not help the country
from a policy standpoint
to have a rematch of the 20, 20 election
that almost no one wants.
We've seen this movie before.
Biden versus Trump.
No one likes it.
We know the ending.
And polling reflects that again.
AP polling.
70% of the American people say
they do not want President
Trump to run again.
Same numbers.
70% of the people in NBC
polling say
they do not want Joe Biden to run again.
So how do we prevent that rematch?
How do we break this political logjam?
So that we can start to resurrect
the American spirit?
I believe that the most credible way
the solution,
the antidote
is Governor Ron DeSantis,
this political rising star,
this young man of dynamism
who took
what was a swing state
and turned it into a ruby red
Republican state.
You said that you
endorsed Donald Trump partly
because he was a disruptor.
And you think DeSantis is the same thing.
I'm curious what you
you meant by that,
because Donald Trump
certainly was a disruptor,
but he did not follow
some of the norms of the president.
You see from historical past.
He was a liar.
He lied a lot.
He was a president who stoked division
and anger and Trump denies this.
But there are
some people who were convicted
of seditious conspiracy
who said they blamed Donald Trump
for their actions
breaking into the Capitol
Would you be okay
if DeSantis acted in the same
way as former President Trump
Well, Sarah, you and I
are certainly not going to agree.
I do not think
that Donald Trump is a liar.
I think he was exactly the disrupter
that we needed. Well, he has this time.
But just because he realizes to be fair,
he has been caught lying. Okay.
Over and over and over again.
Let's be fair.
I mean, I care about that.
I'm here
to advocate
for Governor DeSantis,
but give me a Trump lie
then, and let's discuss it.
There are too many of them
to even recount,
literally too many to recount.
But I will I will do this.
Let us talk about DeSantis then.
The Republican Party
has been best known
for wanting a smaller government,
a party that wants fiscal responsibility.
A historically has been pro-business.
And I'm curious
what you think
about something that he has done,
which is basically wanting
to put a bill in place,
wanting to put a law in place
that doesn't allow people
to look
at his past record
and some of the way he spent money
and some of the state
using some of the state
resources like the airplane
doesn't want people to be able
to look at that and be transparent
about what his history was
as the governor of Florida.
What do you think about that as a law?
Sure.
Well, Sara,
to the first part of your question,
you know,
regarding his willingness
to take on big business. Yes.
Historically, the Republican Party
was very much allied with big business,
but that is not the new Republican Party.
That is not the patriotic
populist movement, which is pro-worker,
which is pro small business.
And so Ron
DeSantis has shown
an incredible amount of courage
in taking on the oligarchs
and their power, particularly Disney,
the most powerful company in his state,
who tried to insert itself
into a cultural political question
about whether or not it's appropriate
to teach sexualized content
to extremely young children.
The people of Florida
made their decision that it is not.
And that is not good education
for very young children.
And Disney tried to flex
its corporate muscle
and impose
its will on the people of Florida.
Ron DeSantis has punched back
very hard at Disney
and other giant corporations now
to the second part of your question
regarding his travels, as you know.
Let me once somebody becomes a governor,
I just want to jump in about Disney.
But I guess the question is,
since Republicans for such a long time
were very much pro-business,
wanted businesses to be able to operate
the way they saw fit
and let the let the public decide, do
you do you agree that that is a different
in how the Republicans used to think
I think there is.
Yes, there is.
I will certainly agree
that the Republican Party of today
is far more populist, far more pro-worker
than it was in the past.
But here's the reality.
Big business in this country
in many ways has been fuzed
with government power, particularly
if we look at big tech.
But there are many other areas as well
where big business and big government
work in concert with each other.
And I believe
that's why this country in many ways
has really slouched
into oligarchy, into the rule of the few.
We have a very different vision
of diffused power
of the people actually ruling.
And part of that means
being willing to take on big business.
So I guess the term I would use to is
we are pro enterprise
we're not pro
big business, we are pro free enterprise.
And it by the way, enterprise
has absolutely flourished
in the state of Florida
because people and businesses
are flocking in absolute record numbers
to Florida
because of what Ron
DeSantis has done there,
because of what he has built.
So corporate media
wants to try to pretend
that Florida has become
some sort of unwelcoming backwater.
But the actual reality of domestic
migration of moving trucks and companies
pouring into the Sunshine State
tells us exactly the opposite.
All right.
Let's quick
rallied to the decision to go to the
the other issue that we talked about,
which is transparency.
And conservatives
have typically been champions
of transparent
and more transparency in government.
But DeSantis in court cases
has lately claimed executive privilege.
And again,
we talked about that bill
that would exempt records
related to his travel
from the state's
robust public disclosure law.
We do have the sunshine laws in Florida.
What do you make of this?
Do you agree that he should
be in this position to say,
hey, you can't
you can't see the way
I've spent some of the state's money,
the taxpayer dollars,
or you can't have any of his staff
testify claiming executive privilege.
What do you make of that?
Well, saying
listen, I think
executive privilege
is very important for a president,
very important certainly for a governor.
As you
well know, a governor can't travel
the way you and I can
because of security measures.
So he has to travel
in a very different way.
Now,
assuming that he does have to make
his investors
have to travel in a different way
and they don't use executive privilege,
that is usually
set aside
for presidents and presidents do
use it at times.
So why is he special?
Listen, I think that governor
Governor DeSantis
has been incredibly transparent.
It's one of the reasons,
one of the many reasons
why Floridians
so rallied to his cause
and gave him an absolutely
overwhelming reelection.
And, by the way,
one with coattails,
not just it's
not just that he soared to it
to a runaway
smashing landslide victory,
but he also lifted
all other Florida statewide
officeholders the first time
that all of those offices are held
by Republicans
the first time
since the Civil War
era in the Sunshine State.
So the people of Florida clearly
are more than satisfied with the job
he is doing with the level
of transparency that he's providing.
And I believe he will continue
to provide that
as long as he's governor of Florida,
until he becomes president.
The United States,
which I hope to be a big part
of making happen.