Election 2024: Ron DeSantis holds virtual town hall with Gray TV

(Gray Iowa Capitol Bureau) – With the Iowa Caucuses entering the final stretch, Iowa’s Gray Television Stations will host virtual town halls with the top candidates to answer questions you want to ask.

Iowa Political Director Dave Price is sitting down one-on-one with the candidates for the Republican nomination which will be streamed on the websites and apps for Gray TV stations covering Iowa, including this one.

Ron DeSantis was the first to agree to take part in the virtual town hall live, answering questions submitted to us Tuesday by viewers like you on a range of topics, including the border, the economy, former President Trump, veterans, faith, and more.

We’ve also requested similar town hall interviews with Nikki Haley and Donald Trump. We’ll let you know once those are scheduled and will be looking for your help again with what you want to ask them.

ON DONALD TRUMP

DeSantis said Tuesday that he’s looking well beyond the next four years, that his vision includes two terms. And he said his victories in Florida indicate a decisive victory.

“We need a two-term president to be able to fully turn this country around and to make lasting change,” he said.

He also said it’s important to be able to form a solid Cabinet.

“You can’t do it by yourself... I think the former president had trouble there. I think he’d have big trouble recruiting good people if he could even get elected again,” DeSantis said. “I’m gonna have great people around us, and you’re going to see a big difference. This government has gotten out of control. We need to return it to its rightful owners, we the American people.”

The Florida governor said he’s not sticking with former President Trump on his challenges with the ballots in Maine and Colorado, but that he’s sticking with the Constitution — even though he says Trump definitely wouldn’t come to anyone else’s defense.

“I don’t think we want to go down the road where one beauracrat in a Secretary of State’s office can take somebody off the ballot and take away the opportunity for people to make a judgement,” he said.

He questioned how due process is implemented for the 14th Amendment, asking whether a Republican state could argue that President Biden could be removed from the ballot because “he permitted an invasion” of our borders.

DeSantis said he’s not protecting Trump and that he draws stark differences between the two of them. The main differences between himself and the former president is that Trump is running on promises he already didn’t keep, from the border wall to “draining the swamp” to the elimination of the national debt.

“The Democrats seem to beat him on the budget. The Democrats beat him by denying the border wall and that’s not going to happen to me. I’m gonna get all these things done.”

ON BORDER SECURITY

DeSantis said he’s planning to declare the border a national emergency on Day 1.

“I’m going to have the military on the border to stop the invasion cold,” he said. “...I’m gonna deport them back to their own country. You have got to do that.”

He also said he’s also going to build the wall and have Mexico pay for it.

“How do you do that? ...You charge fees on the remittances that workers send overseas. That’ll raise billions. We’ll build the wall,” he said.

He said he’s also going to hold the Mexican drug cartels accountable.

“I’m going to categorize them as foreign terrorist organizations. That’s going to give us an ability to use deadly military force against them,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis says his administration would focus on the 8 million who have come into the country under Biden and “clear those out.”

“I don’t think there’s any other way that we’re going to be able to secure our country,” he said. “...We have made ourselves vulnerable to a terrorist attack because of what’s happened at the southern border.”

He also said that he wouldn’t support automatic birthright citizenship for “illegal aliens.”

DeSantis defended his decision to send illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard or other locations in other states, saying it’s not a fair analysis to say that it’s not a Christian response and that the people sent there were better off.

“They were people that were basically destitute. Biden wasn’t doing anything — he’s letting them in, and they’re basically on the streets,” he said. “...If Biden’s letting them in, they should go to sanctuary jurisdictions. Martha’s Vineyard’s very wealthy. They had an office saying that wanted anyone to come regardless of status. They held themselves out to be a sanctuary jurisdiction. That was much better for the illegal aliens to be in Martha’s Vineyard than where they were.”

ON THE ECONOMY

DeSantis said the Florida economy has done well and incomes have gone up.

He said a big reason behind that was because the state “bucked Fauci and we bucked the Trump administration” when it came to COVID-19 lockdowns.

The Florida governor said his state’s government was smaller and more efficient, and he plans to use that same mentality in Washington.

“The bureaucracy is totally out of control, and I’ll be the guy to come in there and bring it to heel,” he said.

ON VETERANS

DeSantis pointed out more than once that he’s the only veteran running for president, so those issues are “close to my heart.” Because of that, he said, there hasn’t been a president that’s put veterans issues “front and center.”

He said that the federal government hasn’t helped with the mental health needs of its veterans, particuarly those wrestling with PTSD and substance abuse.

“That is not something that is unforeseen. War is hell. This is the stuff that happens,” he said, noting that he would be mindful of those costs.

He said he plans to fire some of the “bad bureaucrats” in the VA, which he said haven’t done a good job. Instead, he would expand a Florida program, CarePortal, to allow community organizations, businesses, churches, volunteers, and charities offer that needed support.

ON HIS FAITH

“Faith in God is just, uh, who I am; and my faith is my foundation. It’s how I’m able to deal with issues,” he said. “When the seas are choppy, when people are gunning for you, I put on that full armor of God, and that allows me to have the strength to be able to lead.”

DeSantis said prayers from people throughout the country helped his wife and their whole family stay uplifted when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

He said his faith helped him “stand strong” through the COVID pandemic and during some the fights with Disney over transgender ideology and while “keeping that out of the schools, and the elementary schools.”

He said that rights come from God and not the government, and that people have the right to “live their faith.”

“We’re going to make sure that we restore religious liberty in this country,” he said. “Because when you have a situation where a football coach like Coach Kennedy is losing his job in Washington State because he led a voluntary prayer at midfield after a high school game. He has to go all the way to the Supreme Court? That is not what our founding fathers intended.”

ON HIS RUNNING MATE

While DeSantis didn’t offer any names, he did share the qualities he’s looking for to join his ticket. He said he has two main criteria, beyond someone who absolutely able to be president, without question.

“I’m partial to governors because I think governors have the best training in terms of actually having to make executive decisions and then also working with the legislative branch to advance policy,” he said.

It needs to be someone who shares the same vision and values as the president so that the country isn’t taken in another direction if they have to take the helm.