We will publish a biography of the President of the United States of America, Ron DeSantisPart 1
We will publish a biography of the President of the United States of America, Ron DeSantisPart 1
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00:00We will publish the biography of the candidate for President of the United States of America
00:06Ron DeSantis.
00:08Part 1 Ronald Dion DeSantis born September 14, 1978
00:15is an American politician serving since 2019 as the 46th Governor of Florida.
00:21A member of the Republican Party, he served as the U.S. Representative from Florida's
00:256th Congressional District from 2013 to 2018.
00:30DeSantis was a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, withdrawing his candidacy
00:35in January 2024.
00:39Born in Jacksonville, DeSantis spent most of his childhood in Dunedin, Florida.
00:44He graduated from Yale University and Harvard Law School.
00:48DeSantis joined the U.S. Navy in 2004 and was promoted to lieutenant before serving
00:52as a legal advisor to SEAL Team 1.
00:56He was stationed at Joint Task Force Guantanamo in 2006 and was deployed to Iraq in 2007.
01:02When DeSantis returned to the U.S. about eight months later, the U.S. Attorney General appointed
01:08DeSantis to serve as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney's Office in
01:14the Middle District of Florida, a position he held until his honorable discharge from
01:18active military duty in 2010.
01:21DeSantis was first elected to Congress in 2012 and was re-elected in 2014 in 2016.
01:28During his tenure, he became a founding member of the Freedom Caucus and was an ally of President
01:33Donald Trump.
01:35He briefly ran for U.S. Senate in 2016 but withdrew when incumbent Senator Marco Rubio
01:40sought re-election.
01:42DeSantis won the Republican nomination for the 2018 gubernatorial election and narrowly
01:47defeated the Democratic Party nominee, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, in the general election
01:52by 0.4 percent.
01:54DeSantis was governor during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as during Hurricane Ian
02:00and Hurricane Nicole.
02:02He encouraged the passage of the Parental Rights in Education Act.
02:07In the 2022 gubernatorial election, he defeated former Governor Charlie Crist by 19.4 percentage
02:13points, the state's largest margin of victory for a governor's election in 40 years.
02:18On May 24, 2023, DeSantis announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President
02:24of the United States, and he continued to serve as governor during the campaign.
02:30On January 21, 2024, DeSantis withdrew his presidential candidacy and endorsed Trump.
02:37DeSantis has written two book streams from Our Founding Fathers, published before his
02:41first campaign for Congress in 2011, and The Courage to be Free, published in 2023.
02:47Ronald Dion DeSantis was born on September 14, 1978, in Jacksonville, Florida, to parents
02:54Karen DeSantis, née Rogers, and Ronald Daniel DeSantis.
02:58His middle name, Dion, honors the singer Dion Dimuchi, and his family name has different
03:03pronunciations.
03:05His mother's family name, Rogers, was chosen by her grandfather, née Ruggiero, upon immigrating
03:10from Italy.
03:12All of DeSantis's great-grandparents immigrated from southern Italy during the First Italian
03:17Diaspora.
03:18His parents and all of his grandparents were born and grew up in western Pennsylvania and
03:22northeast Ohio.
03:24DeSantis's mother worked as a nurse and his father installed Nielsen TV rating boxes.
03:30They met while attending Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, during the
03:341970s and moved to Jacksonville, Florida, during that decade.
03:39His family then moved to Orlando, Florida, before relocating when he was six years old
03:43to the city of Dunedin in Florida's Tampa Bay area.
03:47His only sibling, younger sister Christina, died in 2015 at age 30 from a pulmonary embolism.
03:54He was a member of the Dunedin national team that made it to the 1991 Little League World
03:59Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
04:02DeSantis attended Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School and Dunedin High School, graduating
04:07in 1997.
04:10After high school, DeSantis studied history at Yale University.
04:14He was captain of Yale's varsity baseball team, he played outfield, and as a senior
04:18in 2001 he had the team's best batting average at .336.
04:23DeSantis was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and of the St. Elmo Society, one
04:28of Yale's secret societies.
04:31While attending Yale, he worked a variety of jobs, including as an electrician's assistant
04:35and a coach at a baseball camp.
04:37DeSantis graduated from Yale in 2001 with a B.A., magna cum laude.
04:43After Yale, DeSantis taught history and coached for a year at Darlington School in Georgia,
04:47then attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 2005 with a Juris Doctor, cum laude.
04:53At Harvard, he was business manager for the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.
04:59In 2004, during his second year at Harvard Law, DeSantis was commissioned as an officer
05:03in the U.S. Navy and assigned to the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps, JAG.
05:09He completed Naval Justice School in 2005.
05:12Later that year, he reported to the JAG Trial Service Office Command Southeast at Naval
05:17Station Mayport, Florida, as a prosecutor.
05:21He was promoted from lieutenant, junior grade to lieutenant in 2006.
05:26In the spring of 2006, DeSantis arrived at Joint Task Force Guantanamo, JTF-GTMO, working
05:32with detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp.
05:36The publicly released records of his service in the Navy were redacted, with the Navy citing
05:40a personal privacy exception to the Freedom of Information Act.
05:45Mansour Ahmad Saad Al-Dhaifi, who was held at Guantanamo, alleged in 2022 that DeSantis
05:50oversaw force-feeding detainees and DeSantis acknowledged that he advised the commander
05:54of the base about the use of force-feeding.
05:57In 2007, DeSantis reported to the Naval Special Warfare Command Group in Coronado, California,
06:03where he was assigned as a legal advisor to SEAL Team 1.
06:07He deployed to Iraq in the fall of 2007 as part of the troop surge.
06:12He served as legal advisor to Dane Thorleafson, the SEAL commander of the Special Operations
06:16Task Force West in Fallujah.
06:19DeSantis returned to the U.S. in April 2008, reassigned to the Naval Region's Southeast
06:24Legal Service.
06:26He was appointed to serve as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney's Office
06:30in the Middle District of Florida.
06:33DeSantis was assigned as a Trial Defense Counsel until his honorable discharge from active
06:37duty in February 2010.
06:40He concurrently accepted a reserve commission as a lieutenant in the Judge Advocate General's
06:45Corps of the U.S. Navy Reserve.
06:47During his military career, DeSantis was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Navy and Marine
06:52Corps Commendation Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Iraq Campaign
06:57Medal.
06:58His Navy Reserve service ended in February 2019, a month after his gubernatorial inauguration,
07:04with the rank of lieutenant commander.
07:07With two law school friends, DeSantis founded an LSAT test prep company, LSAT Freedom, that
07:12one of the other co-founders billed as the only LSAT prep courses designed exclusively
07:17by Harvard Law School graduates.
07:20DeSantis also worked as a litigator at the Miami-based law firm Holland & Knight before
07:24running for Congress in 2012.
07:27In 2012, DeSantis ran for the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 6th Congressional
07:32District.
07:34During his campaign, he aligned himself with the conservative Tea Party movement.
07:39His campaign was financially supported by the Koch Brothers organization's Freedom Works
07:43and Club for Growth.
07:45U.S. Senator Mike Lee and former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton helped DeSantis' campaign
07:50and raise money.
07:52In August, DeSantis defeated six candidates in the Republican primary and then defeated
07:57Democratic nominee Heather Bevin in the November general election.
08:01He was re-elected in 2014 and 2016.
08:06In May 2015, DeSantis announced his candidacy for the 2016 United States Senate election
08:12in Florida.
08:14He ran for the seat held by Marco Rubio, who initially did not file to run for re-election
08:18due to his 2016 presidential campaign.
08:22DeSantis was endorsed by the Koch Brothers' fiscally conservative Club for Growth, which
08:26had previously supported his U.S. House campaign.
08:30When Rubio ended his presidential bid and ran for re-election to the Senate, DeSantis
08:34withdrew from the Senate race, instead running for re-election to the House.
08:39DeSantis signed a 2013 no-climate tax pledge against any tax hikes to fight global warming.
08:45He voted in favor of H.R. 45, which would have repealed the Affordable Care Act in 2013.
08:52DeSantis introduced a bill in 2014 that would have required the Justice Department to report
08:57to Congress whenever any federal agency refrained from enforcing laws.
09:02In 2015, DeSantis was a founding member of the Freedom Caucus, a group of congressional
09:07conservatives and libertarians.
09:10DeSantis opposes gun control and received repeated air ratings from the NRA Political
09:14Victory Fund.
09:16He has said, very rarely do firearms restrictions affect criminals.
09:21They really only affect law-abiding citizens.
09:24DeSantis was a critic of Obama's immigration policies, including deferred action legislation,
09:29DACA and DAPA, accusing Obama of failing to enforce immigration laws.
09:35In 2015 he co-sponsored Kate's Law, which would have increased penalties for aliens
09:39who unlawfully re-enter the U.S. after being removed.
09:43DeSantis encouraged Florida sheriffs to cooperate with the federal government on immigration-related
09:48issues.
09:49In 2016, DeSantis introduced the Higher Education Reform and Opportunity Act, which would have
09:55allowed states to create their own accreditation systems.
09:59He said this legislation would also give students access to federal loan money to put towards
10:03non-traditional educational opportunities, such as online learning courses, vocational
10:08schools, and apprenticeships in skilled trades.
10:11In 2016, DeSantis received a zero rating from the Human Rights Campaign on LGBT-related
10:17legislation.
10:18Two years later, he told The Sun-Sentinel that he
10:22doesn't want any discrimination in Florida, I want people to be able to live their life,
10:26whether you're gay or whether you're religious.
10:29DeSantis was present before the June 2017 congressional baseball shooting, and the
10:34perpetrator asked him whether the players were Republicans.
10:38Later that summer, DeSantis proposed legislation that would have ended funding by November
10:42of that year for the Mueller investigation of President Trump.
10:46He said that the May 17, 2017, order that initiated the probe didn't identify a crime
10:52to be investigated and was likely to start a phishing expedition.
10:56DeSantis supports a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress
11:01so that U.S. representatives would be limited to three terms and senators to two.
11:06He served three terms in the House of Representatives, retiring in 2018 to run for governor of Florida.
11:13DeSantis said that the debate over how to reduce the federal deficit should shift emphasis
11:17from tax increases to curtailing spending and triggering economic growth.
11:22He is a past supporter of replacing the federal income tax and the IRS with a federal sales
11:26tax called the Fair Tax by co-sponsoring legislation to do so as a U.S. representative.
11:32He supported a no-budget, no-pay policy for Congress to encourage passage of a budget
11:37resolution.
11:39DeSantis endorsed the REINS Act, which would have required that regulations significantly
11:43affecting the economy be subject to a vote of Congress before taking effect.
11:48He also supported auditing the Federal Reserve System.
11:52DeSantis supported the 2014 Venezuelan protests, calling them peaceful and a result of Venezuela's
11:58socialist economic policy.
12:01He heavily criticized the Venezuelan government's response to the protests, saying its actions
12:06resembled techniques used by Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
12:10For alleged IRS targeting of conservatives, DeSantis asked for IRS Commissioner John Koskinen's
12:15resignation for having failed the American people by frustrating Congress's attempts
12:19to ascertain the truth.
12:21He co-sponsored a bill to impeach Koskinen for violating the public's trust.
12:26DeSantis criticized IRS employee Lois Lerner and asked that she testify to Congress.
12:32In 2014, DeSantis introduced the Let Seniors Work Act, the companion of a similar bill
12:37introduced by Marco Rubio in the Senate.
12:41The bill would have repealed an incentive to retire instead of keep working and would
12:44have exempted those above 65 from the 12.4 percent Social Security payroll tax.
12:50He also co-sponsored a measure to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits.
12:55According to PolitiFact, it is half-true that DeSantis voted to cut Social Security and
13:00Medicare and voted to increase the retirement age because those votes were on non-binding
13:04resolutions that would not have become law even if passed and because the objective was
13:08to stabilize those social programs to avoid steeper cuts later.
13:13Self-think-tank Citizens Against Government Waste named DeSantis a taxpayer superhero
13:17in 2015.
13:20DeSantis sponsored the Transportation Empowerment Act, which would have transferred much of
13:24the responsibility for transportation projects to the states and sharply reduced the federal
13:28gas tax.
13:30He opposed legislation to require online retailers to collect and pay state sales tax.
13:36He voted for the 2017 Trump tax cuts.
13:40DeSantis opted not to receive his congressional pension and filed a measure that would eliminate
13:45pensions for members of Congress.
13:47During the 114th United States Congress, DeSantis served on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability
13:53and chaired its subcommittee on National Security.
13:57He also served on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Judiciary Committee, and the Republican Study
14:02Committee, along with several subcommittees of those.
14:06On Jan. 5, 2018, DeSantis filed to run for the office of governor to replace term-limited
14:11Republican incumbent Rick Scott.
14:14President Trump had said the previous month that he would support DeSantis should he run
14:18for governor.
14:20During the Republican primary, DeSantis emphasized his support for Trump by running an ad in
14:24which DeSantis taught his children how to build the wall and say make America great
14:28again.
14:30Asked whether he could name an issue on which he disagreed with Trump, DeSantis declined.
14:35On Aug. 28, 2018, DeSantis won the Republican primary, defeating his main opponent, Adam
14:41Putnam.
14:42DeSantis' gubernatorial platform included support for legislation that would allow people
14:47with concealed weapons permits to carry firearms openly.
14:51He also supported a law mandating the use of e-Verify by businesses and a state-level
14:55ban on sanctuary city protections for undocumented immigrants.
15:00DeSantis promised to stop the spread of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee.
15:05He expressed support for a state constitutional amendment to require a supermajority vote
15:09for any tax increases.
15:12DeSantis opposed allowing able-bodied, childless adults to receive Medicaid.
15:17He said he would implement a medical cannabis program while opposing the legalization of
15:22recreational cannabis.
15:24The day after his primary win, in a televised Fox News interview, DeSantis said, the last
15:29thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with
15:33huge tax increases and bankrupting the state.
15:36His use of the word monkey received widespread media attention and was interpreted by some,
15:41including Florida Democratic Party Chair Terry Rizzo, as a racist dogwhistle alluding to
15:46the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Andrew Gillum, who is African-American.
15:51DeSantis denied the racism charge.
15:54Dexter Filkins, writing in The New Yorker in 2022, called it a disastrous gaffe and
15:59quoted an unnamed ally of DeSantis lamenting that afterward, we were handling Gillum with
16:03kid gloves.
16:05We can't hit the guy because we're trying to defend the fact that we're not racist.
16:10The general election was widely seen as a toss-up.
16:14Some sheriffs endorsed DeSantis, while other sheriffs backed Gillum.
16:19DeSantis was endorsed by the Florida Police Chiefs Association.
16:23On September 5, he announced state Rep. Jeanette Nunez as his running mate.
16:29He resigned his House seat on Sept. 10 to focus on his gubernatorial campaign.
16:34The same month, he canceled a planned interview with the Tampa Bay Times to have additional
16:38time to put together a platform before an in-depth policy interview.
16:43On election night, initial results had DeSantis winning, and so Gillum conceded.
16:48Gillum rescinded his concession when the margin narrowed to 0.4 percent, and an automatic
16:53machinery count began with a Nov. 15 deadline.
16:57Although three counties missed the deadline, it was not extended.
17:01DeSantis was confirmed as the winner and Gillum conceded on Nov. 17.
17:07I stop at this point today.
17:09We continue to narrate a stage in the life of the candidate for Ron DeSantis.
17:15Soon we will publish part 2.
17:19Until next time, stay curious.
17:22Stay informed, and keep exploring the world's incredible stories.
17:28For watching.