DeSantis Campaign Press Release - ICYMI: Ron Desantis on Your World with Neil Cavuto

"I can tell you, as President, when I get in there, we'll provide the leadership. We're not going to provide chaos and drama. We're just going to provide an agenda that we can get done and turn the country around."

Tallahassee, FL - Ron DeSantis today joined Your World with Fox News' Neil Cavuto. The highlights are below.

Watch the full interview HERE.

On Donald Trump's failure to deliver on the border wall:

He was talking about his promise to have Mexico pay for the border wall, probably one of the most important, most famous promises in political history, certainly the centerpiece of his 2016 campaign. And what he said was really startling. He said, you know, 'People, you know, say Mexico should have paid for the wall, but he said there was no way he could have ever made Mexico pay' and basically admitted that the whole promise was phony from the beginning. So one, I think that that's really bad. I think this is a different guy in '23 than he was in 2016. But the problem even bigger, you actually could have made Mexico pay. No, they're not just going to cut you a check. You impose fees on remittances from people sending money back to Mexico. That's actually something that his staff said he was interested in doing, and he didn't do it. So that's why he needs to go to these debates. You can't beat the Democrats by running Biden's basement strategy. You owe it to the voters to show up, and you need to defend your record, and you need to show then how you're going to be the guy to get the job done.

On Kevin McCarthy:

I was one of the guys that opposed McCarthy before it was cool. You know, now you're in a situation where they haven't produced results, and that's just the reality. At the same time, though, I look at guys like Chip Roy, Tom Massie, Jim Jordan, and they're basically saying that there's not a plan to go forward with whatever Matt Gaetz is doing. And so I'm somebody, if I go down a road, I will deliver results for it. I'm not just going to do it and flail around. It's not going to just be about fundraising. I would have a plan in place to be able to deliver what I promised to deliver. I'm not sure that there's a plan in place on this. When I see the Republican Congressman pointing out that there's a lot of fundraising going on around that, you know, that makes me uncomfortable. I think when you're doing things, you need to be doing it because it's the right thing to do. It shouldn't be done with an eye towards trying to generate lists or trying to generate fundraising. And so, that is not the way I would operate. When we operate, we do what we think is right and let the chips fall where they may. You know, sometimes when you do the right thing, you do get more support. And that's just the nature of it. But that shouldn't be what's driving any of this, and I'd hope that that's not the case.

On action over failure theater:

Leadership starts at the top. And so you have different members that go, but I think the leader has got to get people in line and try to deliver the victories. But I look at an issue like the border and immigration, and I think that the failure theater that we've seen out of Republicans is 'Oh, well, we only have the house. How are we going to be able to do anything?' But you look, we have the mayor of New York City saying that the city is going to be destroyed because of Biden's open border. You have the governor of New York now acknowledging that this doesn't work. The governor of Illinois is writing letters. So I do think if leadership is provided, you can make headway when it comes to this border because you have very liberal Democrat politicians that are acknowledging that this can't continue. So what I want to see, is I want to see Republicans lead that effort in Washington to be able to give the American people relief from the border situation that is overwhelming not just border cities, it's overwhelming cities all throughout the country.

On the importance of debating:

And yes, we should have that debate. We should have more debates. Donald Trump should show up at the debates. And I do think that they should narrow the debates with the candidates that have met the thresholds of really having a chance to compete in these early states. I'm clearly one of those. I don't know that there's that many more. That would, I think, draw more interest from people, and I think it would probably put more pressure on Donald Trump to actually show up and debate.

On the battle for Iowa:

[Trump] is currently spending money against me in Iowa. He is campaigning in Iowa. And that's an indication -- you can tell campaigns by what they do. So yes, people are going to try to create whatever narratives they want. But he's they're spending money attacking me. And he's spent over $25 million in this campaign attacking me, by the way, that shows you that they do view me as the threat. So you've got to earn this, I'm going to earn it. I've done 58 of the 99 counties in Iowa. We're going to do all 99. I challenge Donald Trump to match me, show up in all these communities, and earn their vote. And that's what we're going to do. And it's a state-by-state process. Anyone can take a national poll, but ultimately, you've got to go earn the votes there locally. And they're showing you that they think it's a race because they wouldn't be behaving in the way that they're doing if they didn't think it was a race.

On taking on the DC swamp as president:

I think the voters are going to expect certainly all Republicans to support our agenda. And I don't think we're going to have any problems. And of all the governors in the country, I think I've probably worked better with my legislature down in Florida. We've had a run of success that is second to none. I understand, they get elected uncertain priorities. I want to help them with their priorities, and I want them to help me, and so you work together to be able to advance a common agenda. We've shown that it can be done here. Look, Washington is swamp. It's definitely more difficult. There's no question about it. But it's a town in need of leadership, and I think only the president can provide that leadership. And we really haven't had a president that's had big success with Congress since President Reagan when he came in. We need to do it now because if we don't get this done, we only have a short amount of time, short amount of window to be able to turn the country around. You've got to go in there, January 20, 2025. You've got to be ready to go on day one. You've got to have your appointments ready, executive orders ready, you've got to have the legislation lined up with the relevant congressmen and senators, and then you don't have a minute to waste, and you need 100-150 days where you're knocking out the country's problems. I'll be ready on day one, I'll be an energetic executive, and we will be on offense for a change.