PUNTA GORDA, Florida–Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reacted strongly to President Biden’s State of the Union address, saying that most of the domestic issues the country is facing now are of “Joe Biden’s own creation.”
“It’s striking that so many of these problems have been created by Biden in his administration since he’s been president,” DeSantis told reporters at a March 2 press conference.
“Think about gas,” he said. “People are chafing at the pump because you’ve had a 40 to 50 percent increase in the price of gas.” There is a reason for the hike, he added.
“They shut down the Keystone Pipeline–no oil from Anwar, nothing on federal lands,” he said, sounding exasperated. “So, consequently, you’re importing more from countries like Russia. That’s bad for consumers because they’re paying higher, but then it’s also bad for our national security.”
DeSantis, a Republican, said America was energy independent before Biden took office and blamed the administration’s “misguided policies.”
“We were energy independent, and we should be energy independent,” he said. Citing “really misguided policies that have been done over the last year, “ he called it ”a huge problem.”
On Russian aggression against Ukraine, DeSantis did not hold back, calling President Vladimir Putin an “authoritarian gas station attendant.”
“It’s a hollowed-out country,” he said of Russia. “... except for the energy. And they have nuclear weapons, which makes them much more dangerous.”
DeSantis told reporters he believes Putin did not anticipate the resistance he has gotten from the Ukrainian people.
“He’s in a situation where his ideology is to reassemble some of the lost glory of what they had,” he said, adding that “by no means” was the Soviet Union a “glorious entity” but, instead, one of the most “evil regimes in modern history.”
“There were a lot of deaths because of Soviet communism and Chinese communism in the 20th century,” he said. “[Putin’s] view is that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was a bad thing, and so he’s being fueled–because America is not serious about energy independence right now. Europe is not serious at all, and Europe is funding this guy—so he has the ability now to go in and flex muscle.”
When then-Congressman DeSantis was in office during President Trump’s administration, he said “lots” of weapons were sent to Ukraine so they could defend themselves.
“That has helped them put up a fight; I think they have done better than a lot of people thought,” the governor said. “Nevertheless, Russia is putting a lot of machinery inside of that country. It’s going to be very difficult for Ukraine to keep them at bay indefinitely.”
He admires the spirit of the Ukrainian people, DeSantis said. But unfortunately this will likely end up with Ukrainians engaging in guerrilla warfare.
“It will be like death by a thousand cuts,” he said. “It’s going to end up very, very ugly over the next weeks and months.”
The only way to shut Putin down is to cut off his resources, the governor said. But in order to do that “America would have to reverse the policies that Biden’s put in place.”
“I think Putin has miscalculated, and if you want to hold him accountable, the way to do it is to hit him where it hurts with energy,” he said.
Another way to cripple Putin would be to send a crushing blow to the oligarchs, who are propping him up.
“They wouldn’t like it,” DeSantis said. “And so, if the oligarchy loses confidence in him, he would really be in a very difficult situation.”
He believes Putin made the decision to go into Ukraine after watching Biden’s failures in Afghanistan.
“I think he sized that up,” DeSantis said. “I think President Xi in China is sizing that up; I think the Ayatollah in Iran is sizing that up. And, because of that, you’re going to have a lot of turmoil over the next three, three-and-a-half years.”
Responding to a reporter’s question concerning Biden and prescription drug prices, DeSantis said Florida has had an application on the federal government’s desk for over a year to allow purchasing from Canada.
“We’ve gone through this Byzantine process, and ... the federal government has done nothing,” he said. “If they would just sign on the dotted line, we have warehouses ready ... we would be able to save tens of millions of dollars just for the state of Florida for our drug costs.”
DeSantis said the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions is a result of “negative polling” and politics. “Science hasn’t changed,” he said.
“Fauci is in the witness protection program now and they don’t want him out,” he said, as many laughed at the reference. “There has been no change in the underlying science. The ineffectiveness of those policies was apparent long ago.”
DeSantis admitted to dozing off as the late hour of the State of the Union address took its toll on the father of three.
“I confess I did fall asleep during it. But, you know, I’ve got three kids under five,” he said laughing. “So a lot of times, by the time it gets past nine, we’re a little tired.”
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