Ron DeSatis was on his best behavior Tuesday.
The Florida governor returned to the mainstream media, an institution he has criticized and ignored for five years, for a 15-minute interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. He wasn’t marked by the overly aggressive insults or overt annoyance that has defined DeSantis’ relationship with the mainstream media in recent years.
He even engaged in friendly banter, recalling a 2018 CNN poll that showed him losing the gubernatorial race that he ended up winning.
“You had nothing to do with it,” DeSantis joked with Tapper.
The tug-of-war with a well-known journalist outside of conservative circles was a very different aspect for DeSantis. As governor, he pushed through state laws to remove legal protections for reporters, elevated communications personnel who publicly attack them and created an insular right-wing media bubble that allowed him to bypass the traditional news outlets.
But as his presidential campaign has stalled, the hint is that DeSantis would once again turn to his old political enemy: the mainstream media.
The interview comes a couple of weeks after DeSantis answered questions from NBC News about implementing his border policy.
Tapper asked DeSantis about his run for the White House, including the fact that he ranks a distant second to former President Donald Trump in most public polls, the red flags embedded in his first campaign finance report, and having to lay off more than a dozen employees just two months after announcing his candidacy.
“They’ve been saying that I’ve been doing badly for my entire time as governor, basically,” DeSantis said.
He noted that he won a historic re-election in November, winning by nearly 20 percentage points, saying that part of the reason he got off to a slow start is that he had to focus on the Florida Legislature for the first few months of 2023.
“I had to do my job as governor with our legislative session,” DeSantis said. «I’ve basically been taking fire non-stop ever since.»
Tapper noted that one of DeSantis’s priorities, fighting the so-called awakening, is not seen as a high-level policy issue by respondents in most public polls. DeSantis said that’s because not enough people know what it means.
“Not everyone really knows what waking up is,” DeSantis said. «I mean, I’ve defined it, but a lot of people who criticize awakening can’t even define it.»
DeSantis Has defined the term as a type of «cultural Marxism» that puts «merit and achievement behind identity politics.» The idea that most public institutions are «infected with the virus of the waking mind» was the defining characteristic of nearly all of DeSantis’s policy proposals during his first term as governor, and early policies outlined while running for president.
The latest iteration of that came Tuesday when DeSantis revealed his plan to «boot the military’s awakening.» The proposal echoed many other DeSantis policies in recent years. He wants to eliminate diversity and equity programs from the military, ban transgender people from serving as they identify, and re-enlist service members who were separated due to failing to follow Covid vaccine mandates.
Tapper noted that the Pentagon has said that DeSantis’ concerns do not reflect reality, which is that military readiness is high. DeSantis responded by pointing to record low recruiting numbers.
“I think you have a big problem with morale,” he said. «Clearly you have a problem with recruiting.»
DeSantis’ return to the mainstream media came the same day that Trump said he received a letter indicating he is the target of a Washington-based grand jury looking into the January 6 riots and attempts to quash the 2020 election. Trump’s announcement, via Truth Social, quickly became a central focus of the day’s news cycle and once again prompted Republicans, including those running against Trump, to come to his defense. .
«Here’s the rub, this country is going down the path of criminalizing political differences,» DeSantis told Tapper, echoing the sentiment of most Republicans who say Trump is being unfairly targeted.
DeSantis said he doesn’t think Trump «should be indicted» and later criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who indicted Trump in June over allegations that he made hush money payments to an adult film star and covered them up. .
“If that wasn’t Trump,” DeSantis said. «That case probably wouldn’t have been brought against a normal civilian.»
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
DeSantis said that, if elected, he would hire a new FBI director and that his job would be to «end the militarization of these agencies.»
On the Russian invasion of Ukraine, DeSantis said his policy as president would be to establish peace, but he did not specifically say whether he thinks Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should cede land to Russia as part of any peace deal.
«The goal must be a sustainable and lasting peace in Europe, but one that does not reward aggression,» he said. «We will take several levers against Russia.»
He specifically singled out energy and exports, which he called «Putin’s lifeline.»
More generally, DeSantis noted that he would like to see US foreign policy more focused on Asia, specifically on China, which he called the «number one threat» to the United States. DeSantis has used his position as governor to enact laws aimed at «cracking down» on China, including recent legislation preventing Chinese entities from buying farmland in Florida.
He also doubled down on his opposition to trans women competing in men’s sports, saying «that’s wrong,» a consistent political platform for him in recent years. At his behest, Republicans introduced nearly 20 bills focused on Florida’s LGBTQ community during the state’s 2023 legislative session.
On the issue of abortion, however, DeSantis did not say whether he would push a six-week federal abortion ban, which he recently signed into law, at the federal level.
“I think the danger from Congress is that if we lose the election, they will try to nationalize abortion right up to the moment of birth,” he said.