Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was one of 13 Republican presidential candidates to address the RPI Lincoln Dinner on Friday night. DeSantis opened by promising there would be no cocaine in his White House.
DeSantis said America is in decline and that Joe Biden is the custodian of that decline.
“I’m running for President because we as Republicans cannot be content with simply managing the decline of our country a little bit better than the Democrats,” DeSantis said. “We must reverse American decline. We must restore this country to greatness. And we must provide our country with a new birth of freedom.”
As governor of Florida, DeSantis said he has done everything he promised he would do. He then rattled off a lengthy list of accomplishments that included economic victories as well as education wins.
“And when it came time to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, we refused to let the state of Florida descend into some type of Faucian dystopia,” he said. “We stood strong against the mob, against the Left, against the bureaucracy and we fought for our peoples’ rights. We fought for their jobs. We fought to have our kids in school. And as a result, the state of Florida has never done better.”
DeSantis vowed to repeal Bidenomics and said he would stop Congress from “borrowing and spending” the country into “oblivion.” He also called for term limits on members of Congress.
He pledged to be the President to “finally solve” the issue of the southern border.
“We’re sending the military to the border,” he said. “Yes, we will build a border wall and we will use deadly force against the Mexican drug cartels because I’m sick of them poisoning our kids, I’m sick of them killing our citizens and I’m sick of them trafficking people into this country. That ends on Jan. 20, 2025.”
DeSantis added he would usher in a “reckoning” for people like Fauci who purported COVID lockdowns and mandates.
“You don’t coddle bureaucrats like Dr. Fauci, you bring them in and you say you are fired,” he said.
Parents would have the “fundamental right” to direct the upbringing and well-being of their kids under a DeSantis presidency.
“We want education in this country, not indoctrination in this country,” he said. “We got it done in Florida and we need to get it done nationally.”
The justice system will be revamped and not target parents or religious groups.
DeSantis said he is proud to be the only candidate for President in either party to have actually served in a war.
“I had opportunities to do a lot of other things in my life,” he said. “When you wear the cloth of your country you wear that American flag on your uniform, you serve beside fellow patriots and you serve a mission greater than yourself, that’s a noble calling. I thank all the veterans in Iowa and throughout this country who have worn the uniform because, at the end of the day, a veteran is somebody who at one point in their life has written a check payable to the United States of America for an amount up to and including that individual’s life.”
DeSantis expressed concern over military recruitment struggles. He said as President, the politics will be ripped out of the military and the woke agenda will be no more on day one.
“We’re not getting a mulligan on 2024,” DeSantis said. “We either win this election and make good on all the promises that we’re making, or the Democrats are going to throw this country into a hole that’s going to take us a generation to climb out of. I believe that decline is a choice. I believe success is attainable and I know that freedom is worth fighting for. This is our chance in 2024 to send the Biden-Harris Administration to the dustbin of history where it belongs. We have to rise to the occasion.”
DeSantis said the time for excuses is over and said he will get the job done in 2024.
