Republican Presidential Candidate DeSantis Campaigns in Iowa Ahead of Caucasus Transcript

... as well as so many great legislators here in Iowa. By the way, most Floridians don't come north in January. It's usually the opposite. I did look. Naples is a high of 78 today, and I know there are Iowans that are enjoying that right now, and most of the Midwest states as well. But I get an insight into what's going on in the country because when blue states do dumb things, I get more people move to Florida. Illinois, I go. I know if they elected that radical Mayor, Naples real estate went up. New York, same thing. It affects Palm Beach, all these places. So I talk to the people that come from Illinois, California, New York, New Jersey, these places, not happy with what's going on there. (00:45) When I run into the Iowans, they like coming to Florida, but they're very happy with what's going on in Iowa and they very much appreciate it. So you're lucky, because that's actually rare now, this day and age. Even some of these Republicans are not following through with what they say either. The Democrats have done a horrible job. So you have Kim Reynolds, you have a great legislature, and you guys should feel fortunate for that. (01:14) I'm really impressed that so many people came out given the weather. I'm going full speed ahead with whatever we have, but we want people to be safe. So if it's not safe, then we will do, and I get that going forward. Our five-year-old son is with us. A month ago, he had never even seen snow, and now he's in the midst of a blizzard. So I did promise him whenever we get a break in the action today, he's going to be able to do a snowball fight with me. So we're going to work on that and figure out where we can get that done and make it happen. I'm excited to be here. (01:48) I'm excited that we're having the run-up to the caucus. I think the choice is simple. Donald Trump's running for his issues. Haley's running on the donor's issues. I'm running on your issues. I'm running for your family. I'm running solely to turn this country around. I'm the only one running that has delivered on 100% of the promises that I made. These are things that people have been talking about for years as Republicans. They run on it and never deliver it. We delivered it across the board. I'm also the only one running who has actually beaten the left and the Democrats time and time again. I'm sick of Republicans losing. You look at what's happening in Washington. Another failed budget bill, massive increase in spending, not dealing with the border. All these things where they campaign one way and they don't do, and the Democrats always seem to win. It's like Lucy, with the football. We think we're going to do and don't. (02:40) In Florida, that's not how it worked. We beat the Democrats when it comes to things like election integrity. We have universal voter ID, no ballot harvesting. We beat the teacher's unions on universal school choice. We beat Fauci on COVID. The former president was out here the other day doing a town hall and he said, "He had nothing to do with Fauci." He said, "I was the one that was involved with Fauci." That is gaslighting. That is revisionist history. He elevated Fauci, turned the reins over to Fauci, and if it wasn't for governors like Kim and like me dragging this country out of lockdown, it would've been even worse. But those COVID policies were disastrous in this country. And so not only did we beat them in Florida, the state's never done better as a result of that. I'm the only one running for president that's going to bring a reckoning to the federal government for what it did to this country during COVID. All those agencies are going to be held accountable because we can never let this happen to our country ever, ever again. (03:41) We also beat the left by banning China from buying land in the state of Florida. No farmland, no land near military bases, none of that. We need to do that nationwide, so that's what we have to do. And oh, by the way, we came in as governor in a state that had usually been decided by one point, perfectly divided almost. 300,000 more Democrats than Republicans actually in the state of Florida. We led, we led strongly and boldly and unapologetically, and what was the political result of that? We didn't win by one point or 40,000 votes. We won by 20 points and a 1.5 million-vote margin. People respond to leadership. When they see that you're willing to fight for them, and when they see that you're going to deliver results for them, they will come out in droves to support you. And that's the direction that we have to go. (04:35) As president, we'll knock out a lot of these issues and deliver. Look at what's happening with the border. They now are telling kids in New York City and Brooklyn, "You can't go to school in person because the city's commandeering the school to house illegal aliens." You want to talk about putting the American people last? So Biden's led in 8 million people illegally, more coming every day. Now, I support doing the border wall and I think had Donald Trump built that, Biden would not have been able to let in 8 million people. The wall's a physical fact of life. So we'll do that, but we're going to declare it to be a national emergency on day one. I'll have military assets as needed. (05:15) When people come illegally, the sanction is that they get deported back to their home country. If you're not willing to do that, you're never going to stop this. In Florida, we have boats that try to come in illegally. Coast Guard's job is to stop it. They don't have enough assets, so I put our boats in there, as state. We intercept, give the Coast Guard, and then they'll bring the people back to Haiti or Cuba or wherever. And guess what? When they see that that's going to happen, they don't even try to come in the same numbers because they know they're just likely going to end up back where they started. (05:45) Well, it's the same thing with the border. If you come now, you just get across the border, they give you a piece of paper and say, "Come back in a court date in five years." That's not a deterrent at all. If you come and you go back, then that's that. And we're going to allow states to enforce immigration law and really have a force multiplier there. But I'm going to hold the Mexican drug cartels accountable because they're responsible for a lot of what's happening at the border, and they're responsible for killing tens of thousands of Americans every single year with fentanyl. And having traveled all 99 counties in Iowa, I've met people who've been impacted by this, families that have lost loved ones, communities that have been affected. Every community's become a border community with respect to the fentanyl because it's everywhere, so you got to treat them as the foreign terrorist organizations that they are. (06:37) Parents now, they have a kid in college or something. They think like, well, they may take something at some party not knowing what it is. If it's laced with fentanyl, that could be a fatal poisoning and a death right there, so we cannot just sit there and shrug our shoulders anymore, which is what the people in DC do. So we will hold them accountable, we'll authorize the use of military force, and we're going to end the fentanyl problem in this country once and for all. (07:08) I've got a lot more in the tank here, but I'd rather just answer your questions, and so I just want to end with this. I'm motivated to run partially because my wife and I have a first-grader, a kindergartner, and a preschooler, and we're very concerned about what lies ahead for this country given its current trajectory. Right now, we're on a trajectory to be the first generation of Americans to leave to our kids and grandkids an America less prosperous and less free than the one we inherited. And if we were to do that, we'd be the first generation of Americans to ever leave America less prosperous than what we found, because people from the founding of this country to the present always stood up and sacrificed so that future generations can be free. (07:52) But I also am motivated because we owe a debt of gratitude to those prior generations. People have fought and sacrificed for this country. I used to take a trip when I'd go to Washington, flying to Washington DC, you can take a path going into Reagan airport that would take you parallel to the National Mall. And so if you looked out the left side of the plane, you saw sweeping views of the Lincoln Memorial, the reflecting pool, the Washington Monument, all the great monuments and the US Capitol building. And you felt a sense of pride as an American because those symbolize the ideals and principles that have made this country unique. But after doing that trip a few times, I realized the best monuments to this country is not found on the National Mall. All you had to do is look out the other side of the plane. Because if you looked out the right side of the plane, you looked over the Potomac River, you saw a series of small nondescript monuments orderly arranged over the rolling hills of a place called Arlington National Cemetery. (08:49) And it occurred to me then, and I believe now, you can have the best constitution in the world, you can have the best declaration of independence in the world. These things do not run on autopilot. They require every generation of Americans to step up and defend freedom when it's threatened, and sometimes put on a uniform, risk your life, and even give the last full measure of devotion for service to this country. Now, in this political season, we're not called upon to make sacrifices of that nature, but what we are called upon to do is to do justice to those sacrifices. What we are called upon to do is to preserve what George Washington called the sacred fire of liberty. (09:26) This is the fire that burned in Independence Hall in 1776 when 56 men pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to establish a new nation conceived in liberty. It's a fire that burned at a cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania when our nation's first Republican president pledged this nation to a new birth of freedom. It's a fire that burned on the beaches of Normandy when a me band of brother stormed the shores, defeated the Nazis and preserved liberty throughout the world. It's a fire that burned at the foot of the Berlin Wall in 1987 when a resolute Republican president stood in front of that wall and said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," eventually leading to the Soviet Union's destruction. (10:08) This is our responsibility, to carry this torch and to preserve that sacred fire of liberty. It is not a responsibility we should shy away from. It's a responsibility that we should welcome, because if not now, when? And if not us, who? I'm asking for your support on Monday in the Iowa Caucus. As a candidate, I'll work hard to make sure Republicans win up and down the ballot in November. As a leader, I'll always be somebody that you can be proud of. And as your president, I will get the job done and I will not let you down. Thank you all. God bless. (10:46) All righty. Anyone got any questions? Yes, ma'am.

[inaudible 00:10:50] about shutting down the border. So after the border is shut down, how would you deal with those [inaudible 00:10:52] million that are here illegally? How would you [inaudible 00:11:06]?

We are going to deport them, and you use all the assets that you have. Part of that is those assets are not being deployed to do that right now. They're being deployed basically to process more illegals coming into the country, so we will have more resources once we stop the illegals coming into the country. Another thing you have to do is crack down on states that are sanctuary states and then that are sanctuary cities. It's ridiculous that they will not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, even in the extreme cases. So I did this debate against the Governor of California a couple of months ago, Gavin Newsom. I researched some of that, because they're a sanctuary state. Places like LA or sanctuary cities. (11:45) They had a guy in jail in LA, multiple deportations, huge criminal record. ICE had a detainer to take him so that he could be deported. LA refused to work with the federal government, so they just released him, not honoring the detainer. What did he do? He killed a mother of a three-year-old child. And it's like, this is enough. So we're going to use all levers, all resources to be able to do it. But I think if we don't do it, then this problem is going to continue to persist year after year after year. So removing the incentives I think compliments having the interior enforcement, but we're going to do it.

Governor?

Yes.

Governor DeSantis, Governor Reynolds, thanks for braving the blizzard this morning. It's something. It's something. So I've heard you just talk about integration, which I greatly appreciate. What I have been thinking here is in terms of choosing for national security, with Putin weaponizing immigration, destabilizing countries, sending those flows of immigrants to the EU to our borders,

I really feel the fight for Ukraine's borders and our southern border is one fight. So I really would like to engage you here and hear more about how they just quoted Reagan [inaudible 00:13:13], you will stand up to Putin and defend our American interest in Ukraine.

Our southern border is not the same issue as that. With all due respect. I mean, our southern border is an issue of intentional neglect by Biden and a failure of Donald Trump to do what he said he would do in his first term by building the wall, by having record deportations and by doing the interior enforcement that he promised. (13:41) So you have to do that. There are people from Russia that have come, but there's been people from over 100 different countries, the Middle East, Iran, China. Anyone that wants to harm our country is going to use that border because it's a vulnerability. Biden is somebody who has invited a lot of conflict in this country or around the world with his weakness because people don't trust that he will follow through on anything. (14:07) His energy policy benefits Russia and China and Iran and Venezuela. I'm going to repeal his energy policy, the Green New Deal. We're going to be energy dominant in this country again, and that's going to have a huge national security impact. What Biden is doing though, he's flushing hundreds of billions of dollars. (14:27) They want another hundred billion dollars to do things like pay pensions for the bureaucrats in Ukraine, to pay salaries for Ukrainian government officials. How is that something that is in our vital national security interest? No one even knows where that money is going. (14:44) So he has totally mismanaged this, and I think the next president needs to come in and bring an end to this conflict and not have a forever war that costs this country hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars more. Sir.

I'm [inaudible 00:15:03] from California. Thank you for being a [inaudible 00:15:06].

You live in Iowa now or you're visiting from California?

[inaudible 00:15:10] California.

Okay.

I admire your ideas about education. I admire your ideas about [inaudible 00:15:18] elections, but how can you at the federal level affect those changes in that statement?

Yeah, that's a great question.

Before you get elected, do you have the confidence in the elections, if there's no electoral integrity as you [inaudible 00:15:34]?

Well, in Florida, we have confidence because we have good election integrity. I think they do good in Iowa too. So I think there's a lot of states that do good, some don't do as well. I'm not just going to sit there and complain about it. I'm going to do whatever. We need to have organizations unique to each state that is going to mitigate any shortfalls. For example, ballot harvesting, I think it should be banned. It is banned in Florida. (15:57) It's not banned in a place like Nevada. They mail everybody a ballot and then the Democrats go and harvest ballots. I think that's wrong, but if that's legal, we have to do it. So we're going to have harvesting in a place like Nevada, and I'm not going to fight with one hand tied behind my back. Zuckerbucks, we will do that in states where that's legal. (16:16) We banned it in Florida. I think it's ridiculous. Zuckerbucks, he put hundreds of millions of dollars into these nonprofits. And what they would do is they'd go to election offices, like the places that administer the elections, they'd flood it with money, here's money, and then they'd bring in their people and they'd basically run the election in a way to benefit Democrats. Not the way you shouldn't be doing that, but if it's legal, we're doing that. (16:38) So yes, I'm not fighting with one hand tied behind my back. On education, there are certain things that we would've done in Florida that is a state prerogative that the federal government should just stay out of. But then there's other things that we've done in Florida, which can be applied federally. For example, we have Universal School Choice. We're going to do school choice nationally through corporate tax credits. (17:01) So it's not going to have anything to do with the Department of Education, which we want to get rid of, but it'll be done through the Treasury. But basically, we'll be able to say corporations can write off a certain amount of their federal tax liability. It goes to a scholarship entity that administers these scholarships and then families can apply. We did a hundred thousand kids with that approach in Florida for a billion a year, between administrative costs and scholarships. (17:28) So if you think about that, I mean, if you just did 25 billion, that would be nationwide. You would be able to do millions of kids, and we could probably even do more than that. I mean, that's budget dust in Washington. And just think about it. You have some kid in Chicago that has no chance. All of a sudden now they have a scholarship and that they can go to a school where they can potentially do well. (17:49) So I think that's going to be a game changer. And in Florida, if you look, what's one of the biggest problems with -12 education? It's the role that teachers unions play because they're very partisan. They're using schools to try to promote agendas and indoctrination. They don't put the kids' interests at front. (18:08) In fact, we saw that during COVID. Chicago Teachers Union, they didn't want to have kids in school at all. Los Angeles, and then you'd see them, they'd be out... Some of the union people would be out going to The Bahamas living their best life while these poor kids suffered. So people saw that and they realized... (18:25) In Florida, we beat them on school choice. We beat them on COVID, and we just did paycheck protection, no automatic deduction of union dues for teacher unions. So teachers can write a check or pay, but they can't just have the dues deducted or even just have an authorization form. That is now causing a lot of teachers to bail on this because quite frankly, they realize it's not in their interest. (18:52) I've done big pay increases for teachers in Florida based on me working with the legislature, had nothing to do with these school unions. So I think liberating people from school systems that are controlled by those groups I think is really, really important for the future of this country.

Thank you so much for being here, [inaudible 00:19:19]. I guess my question is [inaudible 00:19:22] someone from a younger generation, how do you see passing [inaudible 00:19:28]?

Well, I can't really speak to them. I mean, I think that the approach I take is simple. I treat people as individuals, not as members of groups. I think we need to get away from this idea of trying to put people in different groups. I don't think it's healthy for society. I also just think I don't want to be put in a group because then people say like, "Oh, this group believes that, therefore, that I have to believe that." No, I am an individual. I think people should do that. (20:08) So it goes into a bunch of different things. For example, this whole DEI that they're doing at the universities. They say it's diversity, equity, and inclusion, but it's really ideology. And it's ideology that's trying to aggressively divvy people up in different categories in different groups. (20:26) We've seen in some of these universities with the fallout with some of the Jewish students, how that line of thinking people have linked that to some of the culture on campus. And I think that's probably true. The way DEI is actually practiced, it should stand for discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination and has no place in our public institutions. (20:47) And so we got rid of it in Florida. I know Iowa has either got rid of it or in the process of getting rid of it. I think Texas has done that. So you have a handful of states that are doing it, but we are not going to go down the road of basically they say it's used to remedy discrimination. And so to quote Remedy, they are practicing discrimination, and that's just totally unacceptable. So we'll get rid of that across the federal government and we will end the DEI cartel once and for all.

Something that I think about is I feel like on the other side, they voiced this idea that if we don't have a whole bunch of government going into [inaudible 00:21:43], rescuing people in [inaudible 00:21:45], that we don't care about the issue. My answer is, of course, we care, we just don't think the government [inaudible 00:21:54]. (21:21) But saying that, it doesn't mean that there's nothing that's being done. So my question is when you're looking at struggling inner city or low income neighborhoods and communities, what is the role, especially at the federal level rather than [inaudible 00:22:13], what [inaudible 00:22:14]?

And what's your name?

Jessica.

Thank you, Jessica. No, look, I think that's a great... I think you put it perfectly, and actually, that's the approach we've taken in Florida. So for example, and it's not just limited to low income, government can't solve these problems. That's obvious. I mean, we saw... I mean, in the '60s, they did a war on poverty. They said if they just spend money, that it will end poverty. (22:36) And what happened is they created a culture of dependency that caused problems. So it was a total failure and other stuff that's been done just hasn't done. So what's the role? Government's role is, there's certain things that it can do, but we've tried to use government in Florida to be a facilitator for resources that are outside of the bureaucracy. (22:58) So for example, my wife started something called Hope Florida - Pathway to Prosperity. So when you go in for, say, welfare benefits, you can just say here, whatever the state can give you and do that, and they just keep coming back. But we know that's a dead end, right? So she created something called the Hope... A care portal. I know Iowa's working on this too. (23:18) So we've invited churches, we've invited charities and nonprofits, we've invited businesses, we've invited even individual volunteers to be plugged into this portal. Someone comes in, maybe it's a mom who got evicted from her apartment. She's got two kids and she needs a place to stay. That goes, now maybe government can help, but the minute that goes in, it goes out to all these other groups. Guess what? The churches spring into action. (23:42) Maybe an individual just brings into action and do. So government is serving as a way to connect people to a lot of resources that are in our society because people want to help their fellow citizen. But when people need the help, a lot of times, they don't know where to term. (23:59) So we're going to do this... For example, the federal government, we're going to do it with the veterans issues, the VA. I'm the only veteran that's running for president. And so I remember leaving active duty, getting a stack of papers about veterans benefit, and I didn't need anything, but I didn't understand what was in... I mean, it was bureaucracy and it's a terrible bureaucracy. (24:18) So people go into the VA, maybe they'll get help. A lot of times, they don't. We'll have a portal where we'll have these veterans groups plugged in. We'll have charities, we'll have churches, we'll have businesses, we'll have individuals, and it could just be something, a veteran has post-traumatic stress that goes out. Maybe it's just one individual that gets out and says, you know what? That person lives in the neighborhood next to me. (24:40) Shows up, "Hey, I just want to make sure you're okay. Can I take you out to get lunch?" Just doing that may avert a suicide. And then you have something where we have groups that train service dogs to be paired with veterans with post-traumatic stress, and it mitigates the symptoms and the suicide rate goes down dramatically. (24:56) And then there's so much in the private sector of people that want to help veterans in particular. So that I think is the role is really being a conduit to some of these things. But if it's just a bureaucracy going in, that is not going to change the trajectory of any of these communities. Sir.

Good morning. As a native Floridian, I can tell you that [inaudible 00:25:23].

Okay.

So my question is simply, I don't think the average citizen knows the challenge that the administrative state at federal level has on... The impact they have on their life. I look at it from the perspective of Medicare, home health and hospice industry. And this is an industry that sees an additional 750 to 1,000 pages of new regulations every year. They keep seeing their...

... keep seeing their reimbursement cut every year. And just in the last week, [inaudible 00:26:09], "Oh, we need to reduce benefits by another 20%. Remember when the Democrats ran that key ad about pushing [inaudible 00:26:22]? It's already happening, but it's happening so quietly, behind the scenes from the administrative state. So the question is how in your administration [inaudible 00:26:37].

And your name is?

Randy.

And what part of Florida were you from>

St. Pete. You and I talked about that in Lake [inaudible 00:26:46].

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you. I think it's a great question, and honestly, it's a question that raises implications about who governs this country. Do we, the people govern ourselves, do these elections matter. Or the elections just suggestions where an entrenched bureaucracy just does what it wants anyways? And I think the policies that are implemented by the bureaucracy oftentimes are very destructive policies. I mean, for example, in Iowa, they were fighting the waters of the United States. What, you have a puddle on your farm, someone can come in on the EPA and you're subject to federal jurisdiction? It's ridiculous. That's not what the people have ever enacted through Congress. It's bureaucrats run amuck. These are nameless, faceless bureaucrats who nobody in this room has ever voted for or will ever be able to vote out of office, and so it's a massive amount of power that's basically been transferred from we the people to this effectively fourth branch of government. (27:44) How do you deal with it? Well, one, you need a president that understands the problem. And look, I mean, Donald Trump was president for four years, he did not make a dent in the administrative state. He did not make a dent in draining the swamp. That's just the reality. And in fact, he's now running saying he wants to build a billion dollar plus new headquarters for the FBI right smack in the middle of Washington D.C. That isn't drain draining the swamp, that's deepening the swamp. So I would not do that. So you got to be focused, you got to be disciplined, and you got to understand this power is accumulated over many decades. They are not just going to give it up willingly. So you have levers of power at your disposal and you got to pull those levers in a way that are methodical and strategic. (28:29) For example, we tried to get Trump to do this, and he didn't do it. He tried to do it the very end, but it was too late. You have about 50,000 bureaucrats that are involved in policymaking. Well, they should not be in civil service. They should be a separate Schedule F where they could be fired at will, and so we're going to do that, because if they're exercising judgment that affects your life, you've got to be accountable to the elected President of the United States. I also think we're going to use Article 2 power over the civil service as well. I mean, we can lay off folks. I think there's a size and the scope of government. Size, think about this, Florida, we have millions of more people than New York does. Our budget is half the size of New York, we have the lowest per capita state employees in the country, lowest cost per state employee in the country per capita, and yet when people move to Florida from New York, they say, "Oh my gosh, your infrastructure's better, your schools, all their services." So we're doing it at half the footprint. (29:29) So much of the bureaucracy is just bloat that you can reduce and you wouldn't miss a beat on actually doing the core things government needs to do. But then you also have the scope of government, which is them getting involved in all these other things. And some of that is like the weaponization that we've seen. You got to be willing to fire people. If an FBI agent is surveilling school board people, mom's going to school board meetings, I'm firing those people. You fire the director when they're working with big tech to censor dissent. Clean house. You have to hold these agencies accountable when they exceed the scope of their lawful authorities, and so we're going to do that. (30:07) But part of the reason the administrative state rears its head is because the Congress doesn't use the power of the purse to discipline it. They do continuing resolutions and omnibus bills. That's government on autopilot. That is not doing anything to really do... In Florida, for example, and I'm sure Iowa reacts quickly too to these things, we had an agency that was involved with combating domestic violence. So there was a nonprofit that they had basically contracted out to run it, and this had been a legacy for decades in Florida. I came in, my first or second year as governor. We started getting reports that they were mismanaging the funds, lining the pockets of the directors, all this stuff, that news broke took two days to verify the reports, the next week, the legislature came in and zeroed them out, like done right off the bat. (31:02) That's how Congress is supposed to act. They're supposed to be very, very concerned about how the government's using its powers. And instead, what do these guys do? They'll go in a committee hearing and they'll complain. They'll go on cable news and they'll complain. They'll send fundraising emails and say you need to support them so they can fight back. And did they ever actually do anything to change? No, they don't because they're scared. They're scared of having a government shut down. They're scared of the media attacking. They're scared of all this. So Congress has been pretty much useless with respect to this issue. (31:34) I'm going to really goad them to do more because ultimately, we're going to be able to do a lot from the Executive, but depriving the bureaucracy of the funding when it's doing things that are contrary to our freedoms is very, very important. The founding fathers created three branches of government. We have a defacto fourth branch. I think the task of the next president, and it will take two terms to do this, is to have that fourth branch disciplined constitutionally accountable, so it's now part of the executive branch again, and your votes for president mean that how the government operates will meaningfully change depending on who's in the Oval Office, and that's what they intended.

What's your favorite baseball memory?

Wow, favorite baseball memory? Well, in terms of me playing or just watching baseball?

Whichever.

Okay. So my favorite memory of watching baseball was probably, when I was in college, one of my buddies that I had played with growing up, his dad was the manager of the Red Sox, so I got to go to some games. So I was at a game in Yankee Stadium, I think it was '99 or 2000, somewhere around there, '98, '99, 2000, Pedro Martinez against the Yankees. He struck out 17, one hit, a home solo home run by Chili Davis. He would've had a perfect game, if not for that, just absolutely lights out. That was kind of a pitcher at his prime and a Hall of Fame pitcher at his prime. So that was something that was really, really meaningful for us. (33:20) In terms of things that I've done, I mean, I played all the way through college. You have some good memories and some failures, but I would say probably back in Little League, we went to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. There were only four American teams that would make it. It's very difficult to get there. But you go there and it's like a stadium for Little League Baseball. I mean, it was like the Shangri-La for Little League. You go in and it was immaculate and it was like, wow, we're here kind of making the big time. And I think at a young age, it made a big impression. (33:59) Now, as you get older, to me, some of that stuff isn't necessarily... I'm more interested in just being with my kids or something like that than necessarily, but at the time, it was really, really, really significant. So we had that and that was something that you always remember. So when I was there, you played three games, I pitched the second game, and people have dug up the stats somehow of that game. And they were like, "He struck out 12 people. He got four hits including a home run and seven RBIs." So, I did hit a home run on that Howard Lamade Stadium, the Little League Taj Mahal.

Governor-

Let me give someone else a shot. Yes.

My name is Brian, and just live down the street. I got a question about [inaudible 00:34:55].

Well, that's a great question. So there's a debt clock in New York City where it shows the debt climbing up, famous clock. One of my buddies who's a congressman, he created a version of that that you can put on your jacket pocket, and he wears it on the House floor, so you see the debt going up. He's an engineer, so he figured it out. He gave me one, and I said, "That's nice." I was like, "Could you do one for the state of Florida?" Because if you did one for Florida, it wouldn't be counting up, it would be counting down, because we've reduced our debt, paid off 25% of our state debt just since I became governor. I mean, that I think is kind of the approach that you want to do it. (35:35) You got to be willing to use the veto pen when they're spending too much money. I look at COVID was... From the 21st century on, it's not been a great trajectory, but COVID just like did... They used COVID as a pretext to just shove a bunch of money out that they knew they couldn't do under normal circumstances. And so massive debt, starting with Trump, and he did 4.2 trillion just in his last year, then Biden did 1.9 and other stuff. But what they've done is they've basically just kept those levels of spending where those were never justified to begin with. And so you have to go back to where we were before that and then freeze that in place for the non-defense. I mean, I think that would save hundreds of billions of dollars. I think you have to do that. (36:23) The other thing is, is I think you need structural reform. Part of the reason Florida, we've been able to pay down the debt is I have a balanced budget requirement in the state constitution. So you go in, there's not even a question about running a debt, you have to balance the budget. The other thing is, I have a line item veto. They put a budget on my desk, I can veto individual items out. I vetoed 3% of the budget one year, $3.3 billion. I wouldn't have been able to pay down as much debt had I not done that. So you have your money as being spent on things like promoting transgenderism in Bangladesh. Is that really something that your tax dollars should... But president gets a big massive bill and you can fund everything and sign it, or you can fund nothing and veto it. So the incentives are to pack as much nonsense into there that the congressmen want, knowing that the vehicle's going to go and you're going to get that. (37:17) Having that line item veto for president, I think would be important. So balanced budget requirement and line item veto, that can be done through the states and Florida has already done things like that. And I think you need term limits for members of Congress, because what happens is their main goal is to stay in office, that's just it. Well, if that's your goal and you're trying to deal with fiscal, borrowing is the best way to stay in office, because if they reduce spending, there are constituencies for the programs. Some people may get mad at you. Obviously, if you raise people's taxes, they're going to get really mad at you. So they're always going to want to just do that. If you're term limited, I think, and I've seen this in Florida, people are thinking, "Okay, I'm here for three terms or whatever. I want to have something to show for it. I want to leave a legacy. I know I'm not going to be here for the next 20, 30 years." So I think they're willing to make better decisions. I think in Florida it's shown having term limits has been a big benefit. (38:13) So I think there are things in the long term. The incentives in Washington are hot-wired to produce the results we have right now. And I can sit there and tell you, I'll offer better leadership, and I will, and it will make a difference. But is that going to be enough for 30 years, 40 years down the road? I think we got to have some structural change so that we're changing the incentives of how Washington operates. (38:41) Yes, sir.

[inaudible 00:38:52].

Well, and I've talked ... Probably this is one thing that I've heard from every part of Iowa when I've been visiting

... folks, is something like a Social Security. I mean, I know that it's not an entitlement; you've paid into it. Every paycheck you ever earn, your entire life, you get hit. No matter how little you make, you get hit for that. And so people work, and that's decades, paying in every paycheck. And so I think when you get to be 60, 65, and beyond, people are just like, "Hey, wait a minute. I paid into this and so I have a right to expect to have some benefit." (39:33) So that's kind of how I view it. I think people have been taxed a lot for this. I think Congress, because the programs used to run massive surpluses, and Congress would take the surplus and they would spend it on other things. And if they had just not done that, you would have no problem with those programs at all. In the short term, I think the one thing with Social Security is get the inflation and the interest rates down. (39:57) Because what happens is when prices rise, they do a cost of living adjustment, which costs more from the program, but it is not enough to keep up with the rise in prices. You're better off having no inflation and a lower cost of living because the dollar actually goes farther there. It's also better for the sustainability of the program. (40:16) And then the other thing in the near term is we have not had economic growth consistently above 3% since before the great financial crisis. Florida's a great example of this. We grow. We have some of the best GDP growth, I think the best of any large state. If we were a separate country, we'd have some of the best GDP growth in the world. But what we do is we have a good environment for investment and business. We're number one in new business formations. But we're cutting taxes every year. (40:49) I mean, I've cut taxes more than any governor by far. And yet, we are expanding our economic base, we're growing, so that leads to a gusher of revenue coming in, massive surpluses, and that's why we're paying down debt at the rate that we're doing. So it's a virtuous cycle of where good policy leads to good economic results and then the government fiscal is much easier to manage. (41:14) In the federal, they have not grown at 3% plus, and so they're just not getting the type of benefits that Florida's getting when you're doing that. So you got to grow more. That means open up energy for production so we lower energy costs. It means get the administrative state off the back of the economy. It means tapering the spending down, of course. It means doing things that are going to be conducive for a high-growth environment. But we've not had a great run in terms of GDP growth and I think we got to do a lot better.

Last question, folks.

Sir? Yep.

[inaudible 00:41:56] great governor, how are you going to drive a philosophy? Instead of my federal dollar going [inaudible 00:42:07] federal dollar [inaudible 00:42:10]?

Yeah, look. I think there's a lot of areas you do that. I mean, transportation and infrastructure for example. I mean, people pay taxes that are supposed to go directly to that. And then you send that to Washington and then you get it back. Leave that here in Iowa and let them administer that. The money would go way further and I think it would be more intelligently applied. So I'm definitely supportive of that. (42:39) Ways to devolve power out of Washington, I'm going to be favorable for that. I mean, I just think that that's the nature of it. Now, that'll mean that California may spend it in ways that I don't necessarily agree with, but I think ultimately, voters get what they ask for in that regard. And so I'd much rather have power out of Washington. I think it makes more sense. And so there's a number of different, I think, areas where we could do that and I think it'll be really, really effective. (43:09) I mean, with me as the nominee, I mean, I view... It's just a team effort. It's not just about you. We'll work very hard in these Senate races and in the Congressional races, because we need to increase the majority in the House and we need to win five or six Senate seats. Which is doable. Not doable based on the performance of 2022. (43:29) I mean, part of the reason I'm running is because I looked around the country after the election of '22. We were supposed to have a big red wave. And there may have been one here because of Kim, and there may have been one in Florida, but that was few and far between across the country. And we were in a situation where we had the best conditions to run in that we've probably ever had in 40 years: unpopular Democrat president, inflation raging out of control, high energy prices, open border, crime in the inner cities, international turmoil. (44:01) And it's like, any Republican with a pulse should have been elected in that environment. And yet the Democrats ran a playbook focusing on the past, focusing on the former president, focusing on these things. And that really caused us to come up far short. We should have won 240, 245 House seats. Instead, we barely had the majority. And a lot of that is because New York and Florida each added four seats. The rest of the country just didn't do what it wanted to do. (44:32) We obviously have to do better there. And it is a team effort and you don't want to have a presidency which is just limited to doing executive orders. First of all, you're limited in what you can do with executive orders. But then second of all, the next president comes in, just like when Biden came in, he reversed everything Trump did on day one. Up in smoke. (44:52) You got to get stuff through Congress so it has staying power, because once you do it, it's much harder to undo. An executive order can be undone usually at the stroke of the pen. Now, you have a two-term president, which I think we need. That stuff does take hold over eight-year period in ways that does make it harder for a subsequent, even on an executive order basis. But still, you got to get it through the Congress. (45:16) And so we're going to be doing that, and I think we have great opportunities across this country to be able to get that done. And I would just say in terms of you look at the different stuff with how a general election would work out. Everyone who's running has an election track record: Donald Trump, Haley, me. And I've always overperformed whatever polls said. My election last time was the best victory any Republican's ever had in the history of governor's races in the entire state of Florida. (45:50) We were winning urban areas, we were winning suburban areas, we were winning all different categories. That's showing you that it can be done. People weren't predicting that we would do that. The pundits, they were in their own world. But we knew what we were doing and we were able to deliver. My fear with the former president is there's just so many people that are dug in against him that even if they agree with us on policy, they're just not going there. They have that. (46:18) We need to get everyone that's open to walking away from leftist policy, and I think that's a big majority of this country. But we need every vote that we can get, and we don't want to leave any of these votes on the table. And so I think I provide the best opportunity for that. So again, I'll ask you for your support on Monday. (46:35) I know it's going to be cold. I know it's going to be not the most pleasant. But I don't think you'll ever be able to cast a vote that has more impact, given the circumstance. We don't know what the turnout's going to be. It could be much smaller than what it's been in the 16th cycle. That's possible. So if you're going out and you're bringing four or five different friends with you, or family members, that is going to pack a punch in a way that voting in a general election just simply would not at that level. (47:03) So I'd encourage it, to be a part of that. We are asking you to caucus for us and bring as many people that you can. One thing I can say is that in Florida, I'll have people come up to me who didn't support me in the primary for governor in '18, and they'll say, "Yeah, I got that one wrong. You've done a great job. I'm glad you won the primary." Or people that did vote for me in the primary would say, "I liked you, I knew you would do a good job. But you've done so much better than anything I could have imagined." Don't we want somebody that will over-deliver rather than under-deliver for a change? Thank you all. God bless.