JACK HEATH, WTSN: Since you were on my show last, you said pretty much, Governor DeSantis, that based on all the attacks he's making against you, it is clear that you’re the one he's worried about here who can win this nomination.
And he continues, Former President Trump yesterday was criticizing your name. He’s nicknamed you. He did a release yesterday, actually, commenting on, he was like fixated on your last name, whether it’s Da-Santis Di-Santis, DeSanctis, he’s, he keeps coming at you. What's your reaction to attacks like that, even on your name? Do you think that’s sort of beneath the former president? Or do you, is that what you expect?
GOV. RON DESANTIS: I think it's so petty. I think it's so juvenile. I don’t think that’s what voters want. And honestly, I think that his conduct, which he’s been doing for years now, I think that’s one of the reasons he's not in the White House now. Because I think he alienated too many voters for things that really don’t matter. So I don’t get in the gutter on any of that.
Now look, we do have substantive differences and I think President Trump did a lot of great things, and I still give him credit for the great things he did, but he's attacking me on policy where we have a disagreement, and I'm the one that's in the right here on this. For example, he's saying [former NY] Gov. Andrew Cuomo handled Covid better than Florida did under my leadership, and yet people fled Cuomo's lockdowns to come to Florida but the tens of thousands and probably hundreds of thousands. Florida boomed as a result of being one of the nation's foremost freedom zones. We fought Trump's own administration to make sure our kids could be in school and our businesses could be open. So he's attacking me, siding with Andrew Cuomo in New York over me. I think that's just a huge mistake.
He's also attacked me for opposing an immigration amnesty bill that he tried to push through when was in Congress, and that's true. It was a 2 million amnesty for illegal aliens. I opposed that because I was upholding America First principles. He ran in 2016 saying that he would oppose amnesty for illegal aliens, and then he came in in 2018 and he tried to ram it through.
I think on the substance, people want to see the substantive debate, I think that's totally legitimate. But the juvenile name-calling and all that stuff, that's not the way I roll.
And here's the thing. No governor was bolder on policy and accomplishments than I was in Florida. And yet, I won almost 60% of the vote in a swing state. You don't do that by alienating people, you do that by attracting people who want to share your vision and appreciate the accomplishments and results that you've delivered for them.
I don't care what they say about me in terms of name-calling, although i would say he needs to call me "a winner" because we've won in Florida over and over again. I don't care about any of that, but I think it is a distraction and I think it turns off the voters. How are we going to be able to win independent voters in New Hampshire and other key states if we're going to be engaged in that type of back-and-forth.
I think the voters are sick of it. I think they want to hear about the problems facing the country and how you can deliver results for them.
