Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign launch was a joke but his plans for the country are no laughing matter.
Not long after DeSantis got through pretending that his disastrous campaign launch on Twitter was a result of a “huge audience,” he revealed he’s totally willing to cut Social Security and Medicare. Fox News attacked President Joe Biden for saying Republicans want to cut those programs but here DeSantis all but stated that’s exactly what he wants to do, with the apparent blessing of host and former Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy:
GOWDY: If a candidate for the Republican nomination or president says I can balance the budget, I can restore fiscal sanity and I can do so without touching mandatory spending, or what others call entitlements, should that person be believed?
DESANTIS (chuckling): Well, Trey, you know the math. I mean, at the end of the day, we’re spending so much more and it’s a combination of both. I mean, there are some spending programs that are on autopilot that Congress doesn’t even touch. And those have grown dramatically.
You have also, though, seen a huge increase in what they call discretionary spending, certainly in the last four or five years. Congress is spending at levels that you and I couldn’t have even fathomed back in the day. So, I think that it is a combination of all of these things. Right now, we have a situation where Joe Biden is refusing to do really anything to try to limit how much money is being spent. And I think he’s been singularly irresponsible in terms of how he has handled the federal budget.
The discussion moved on to DeSantis’ hatred for America as seen in his complaints about the “infestation” of the “woke mind virus.” And, of course, demonizing anything that smacks of liberalism is always welcomed on Fox News.
In Part Two of the interview, DeSantis discussed how he wants to make the U.S. more like his personal fiefdom of Florida. Not surprisingly, DeSantis told host Trey Gowdy that he plans to fire the current attorney general and FBI director. His next comments show he plans to install loyalists to run the FBI and DOJ:
DESANTIS: You can’t try to please polite society because otherwise, you’ll just get captured by the institution, itself. And I think the DOJ and FBI have lost their way. I think that they’ve been weaponized against Americans who think like me and you, and I think that they’ve become very partisan.
Part of the reason that’s happened, Trey, is ‘cause Republican presidents have accepted the canard that the DOJ and FBI are “independent.” They are not independent agencies. They are part of the executive branch. They answer to the elected president of the United States, so as president you have a responsibility to be involved in holding those agencies accountable, clearing out people who are not doing the job, and making sure that they are doing the people’s business and are not abusing their authority.
…
Right now, I think those agencies have been able to go without any real accountability. So guess what, when there is no accountability, the bad behavior is going to continue.
If you don’t think that means DeSantis plans to install puppets the way he has in Florida, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Instead of challenging a word or asking for more details, Gowdy changed the subject to the border.
You can watch the full horror of DeSantis’ agenda below, from the May 24, 2023 Fox News Tonight. The portions I’ve excerpted occur at about 6:56 in the first video and about :55 in the second.