DeSantis Campaign Press Release - ICYMI: Ron DeSantis on America Reports

"We're doing what it takes to win, and we're going to get the job done, notwithstanding whatever polls this far out would say."

Tallahassee, FL - Ron DeSantis today joined Sandra Smith and John Roberts on Fox News Channel's America Reports. The highlights are below.

Watch the full interview HERE.

On his leadership in supporting Israel:

When the attacks happened, I knew that this was going to impact Florida because we have a very strong relationship with Israel. There's a lot of affinities with our people, and there's a lot of cross pollination. We have a big Israeli-American population, and what we found after a day or two is that people were stranded. They weren't getting help from the State Department. They weren't getting help from the embassy there in Jerusalem. And so I did an executive order in Florida, and we were able to scramble planes and bring back mostly Floridians, but not all because there were other Americans who were stranded; we're all Americans in this. So we ended up bringing back, rescuing over 700 people back to Florida. And my wife and I were there greeting the first plane that came by -- 271 Total people, but 91 children. And so that really brings it home, that you had families with young children. I had one mother point to her, looked like about a five or six year old daughter, and say to me for the last two nights she just kept saying, 'Mommy, I can't have the rockets anymore. I need Florida. We've got to get back to Florida.' So we were able to help do that. And then when the planes went back to pick up more people, they were able to bring a lot of donated supplies, medical supplies, but also things that were donated like Kevlar and helmets and a whole bunch of things that can be useful as Israel defends itself in this war.

On securing the border and combatting terrorism:

I'd deport those people immediately. Do you not think that after these last two and a half years, our enemies have not taken advantage of that border? Of course they have. We know people from the Middle East have poured in. You guys showed on the graphic I saw all the people on the terrorist watch lists that have come in just in the last year. It is unbelievable. We would have never allowed that, say in the aftermath of 9/11. You have Iranians have come, Russia, China, all of that has happened. So I'd be very aggressive at sending people back. Obviously, stopping the invasion further, but it is a threat to terrorism what's happened there. What I'd also say, though, and you pointed out some of these demonstrations, you know, I went to -- I joke, I'm one of the few people that got through Harvard and Yale and came out more conservative than when I went in because they're known to be very left wing. But even back in that day, I don't think a lot of students would have, in the aftermath of an attack when the blood wasn't even dry on Israeli citizens, gone out and celebrated that. Yet, we've seen that at some of the most august institutions in this country. So there's a sickness that's in these institutions. I've said any foreign student on a visa who's making common cause with Hamas, I'd cancel the visa, and I'D send them home. But we also have to look inside about how we got to this point in this country where you can go out there and proudly advocate for effectively a second holocaust. It's totally unacceptable.

On putting in the work in Iowa:

You've looked at the Iowa caucus polls the last few times--whoever was winning right now in those polls did not actually win the Iowa caucus. And so this thing is very dynamic. It is just getting underway where people are starting to pay attention. Look, I think Donald Trump's the most famous person in politics. I mean, so he has a great name ID, gets a lot of media coverage. As a default, you can understand that. But there's a lot of voters that are up for grabs, and we're going to make it happen. And the hard work we've put in going to these, a lot of the rural counties, you know, that's not something that will necessarily show up in polls. That's something that shows up on caucus night when people bring their friends and family and come out and are willing to go through very cold temperatures to stand for what, two, three hours, potentially through a caucus and listen to the speeches and do all that. So that's what we're doing. We're doing what it takes to win, and we're going to get the job done, notwithstanding whatever polls this far out would say.

On his support in Florida:

I must have missed where those voters have actually voted yet. Isn't it odd that we haven't had one contest, and there's people that are having a rush to try to sort of short circuit the people's voice. So the people haven't been able to speak. That's one of the reasons why we're here in Iowa. I'm now in my 85th county out of 99. I'm going to be the only candidate that does all 99 counties. I think it's important that you show up, you ask for the vote, you tell them what you're going to do. And I can tell you, obviously, the former president has support, but there's a lot of people that haven't made up their mind. There's people that are leaning to him now who are not, have not made a final decision. And so you're going to start to see, as we get in the next couple of months and into the new year, you're going to start to see people make some decisions about, okay, what's the pathway for the Republican party going forward? And with me, they get somebody who will fight for them, which is important, but will also win, win the election but win the fights, and then lead this country to a comeback. That's what we did in Florida. We were able to create huge success. We're continuing to do that. They just had the figures this week. We lead again in net in-migration in 2022. Massive numbers of people are flocking because of what we've been able to do. That's the type of leadership that can work nationally. That's the type of model Republicans need to gravitate towards if we want to win.