We will publish a biography of the President of the United States of America Ron DeSantisPart 3
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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 3 On February 2, 2021, DeSantis announced support
00:15for legislation to hold tech companies accountable to prevent alleged political censorship.
00:20In response to social media networks removing Trump from their platforms, DeSantis and other
00:25Florida Republicans pushed legislation in the Florida Legislature to prohibit tech companies
00:30from deplatforming political candidates.
00:33A federal judge blocked the law by preliminary injunction the day before it was to take effect,
00:38on the grounds that it violated the First Amendment in federal law.
00:42When Twitter suspended DeSantis' administration critic Rebecca Jones' account for violating
00:46rules against spam and platform manipulation, DeSantis' office applauded the decision, calling
00:52it long overdue.
00:54DeSantis supported Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, believing it illegal for tech
00:58platforms to block or demote content that might otherwise run afoul of their terms of
01:02service.
01:03In 2024, DeSantis signed into a law a bill that requires social media platforms to prohibit
01:09people under 16 years old from making accounts.
01:13The law has been criticized by digital rights organizations like NetChoice, which said it
01:17forces Floridians to hand over sensitive personal information to websites or lose their access
01:22to critical information channels.
01:25This infringes on Floridians' First Amendment rights to share and access speech online,
01:29and that the Supreme Court has made clear that the government lacks the free-floating
01:32power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed.
01:37During 2020 and 2021, scientists and media outlets initially gave mixed reviews of DeSantis's
01:43handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
01:46From March 2020 through March 22, 2023, Florida had the 12th highest rate of cases and deaths
01:52per 100,000 people among the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, without adjusting for
01:58the age of Florida's large and vulnerable elderly population.
02:02Florida's age-adjusted death rate, which takes its disproportionately elderly population
02:06into account, was roughly near the median among states as of 2021, and a 2022 study
02:12placed it at the nation's 12th lowest.
02:15By 2023, many political scientists acknowledged that DeSantis's management of the pandemic
02:20may have benefited him in his re-election campaign, and he was credited with turning
02:25his coronavirus policies into a parable of American freedom.
02:29On June 1, 2021, DeSantis signed the Fairness in Women's Sports Act, SB 1028.
02:36It bans transgender girls and women from participating and competing in middle school and high school
02:41girls and college women's sports competitions.
02:44The law took effect on July 1.
02:47In February 2022, DeSantis voiced support for the Florida Parental Rights and Education
02:52Act, HB 1557, commonly known as the Don't Say Gay Law, which prohibits discussion of
02:57sexual orientation or gender identity in school classrooms from kindergarten to grade three.
03:03He said it was entirely inappropriate for teachers and school administrators to talk
03:07to students about their gender identity.
03:11DeSantis signed the bill into law in March 2022, and it took effect on July 1, 2022.
03:18This statute also includes a provision requiring school district personnel to encourage a student
03:22to discuss issues relating to his or her well-being with his or her parent or to facilitate discussion
03:27of the issue with the parent, and does not limit such issues to sexual orientation or
03:32gender identity.
03:34As of March 2023, DeSantis was considering further similar legislation for all grades.
03:40On April 19, the State Board of Education extended the Act's restrictions on classroom
03:45instruction to grades 4 to 12, unless the instruction is required by existing state
03:49standards or is part of an elective course on reproductive health.
03:54The Walt Disney Company, owner of Walt Disney World in Florida, called for the law's repeal,
03:58beginning a dispute between Disney and the state government.
04:02In April 2022, DeSantis signed a bill eliminating the company's Special Independent District
04:08Act and replacing its Disney-appointed board of overseers.
04:12He also threatened during a press conference to build a new state prison near the Disney
04:15World complex.
04:18On April 26, 2023, Disney filed suit against DeSantis and several others, accusing them
04:24of retaliating against protected speech.
04:26DeSantis's attorneys filed a motion to dismiss Disney's lawsuit on June 26, claiming that
04:32the governor and state legislators have legislative immunity.
04:36The lawsuit was dismissed on January 31, 2024, and on March 27 Disney and DeSantis
04:42reached a settlement, allowing DeSantis more control over Disney's operations in Florida
04:46while allowing Disney to negotiate a new development agreement with the state.
04:51DeSantis opposes efforts to defund the police, and his governor has introduced initiatives
04:56to fund the police.
04:58In September 2021, he introduced a $5,000 signing bonus for Florida police officers
05:03and a bid to attract out-of-state police recruits.
05:07In April 2021, DeSantis signed into law the Combating Public Disorder Act he had been
05:12advocating.
05:14Aside from being an anti-riot statute, it forbade intimidation by mobs, penalized damage
05:18to historic properties or memorials, such as downtown Miami's Christopher Columbus statue,
05:24which was damaged in 2020 and forbade publishing personal identifying information online with
05:29intent to harm.
05:31DeSantis had argued for this legislation by citing the George Floyd protests of 2020 and
05:35the 2021 United States Capitol attack, although only the former was mentioned at the signing
05:41ceremony.
05:42Several months after the signing, a federal judge blocked the portion of the law that
05:46introduced a new definition of riot, calling it too vague.
05:50On May 5, 2021, DeSantis announced that all Florida police officers, firefighters, and
05:55paramedics would receive a $1,000 bonus.
05:59On December 2, 2021, DeSantis announced that as part of a $100 million funding proposal
06:05for the Florida National Guard, $3.5 million would be allocated to the reactivation of
06:10the Florida State Guard, a volunteer state defense force that had been inactive since
06:141947.
06:16In June 2019, DeSantis signed an anti-dash sanctuary city bill into law.
06:22Florida had no sanctuary cities before the law's enactment, and immigration advocates
06:27called the bill politically motivated.
06:29Florida became the 12th state to adopt legislation requiring local governments to aid federal
06:34immigration enforcement efforts.
06:37In June 2020, DeSantis signed a bill requiring government employers and contractors to use
06:42E-Verify.
06:44He had originally called for all employers to be required to use it.
06:48A few years later, he signed into law an expansion of E-Verify and other immigration laws.
06:54In 2021, DeSantis halted cooperation with the Biden administration's program to relocate
06:59and resettle migrants in Florida in the wake of a surge in illegal immigration.
07:04DeSantis's administration also allocated $12 million for relocating migrants to other states.
07:11In September 2022, after similar actions by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, an agent of DeSantis
07:17recruited 50 newly arrived asylum seekers, mostly from Venezuela, in San Antonio, Texas,
07:23and flew them via two chartered planes to the Crestview, Florida airport, where they
07:26did not debark, then proceeded to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
07:31The migrants filed a class-action suit against DeSantis, calling his treatment of them extreme
07:35and outrageous, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.
07:40In May 2023, DeSantis announced plans to send over 1,000 personnel to Texas, including National
07:46Guard troops, to help Texas stem the influx of illegal immigration across the southern
07:51border.
07:52DeSantis was widely praised for the state's response to Hurricane Ian, the deadliest hurricane
07:57to hit Florida in over 85 years.
08:00In September 2022, DeSantis declared a state of emergency for all of Florida as Ian approached
08:05and asked for federal aid ahead of time.
08:08On October 5, after Ian deserted Florida, President Biden arrived in Florida and met
08:13with DeSantis and Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott.
08:17DeSantis and Biden held a press conference in Fort Myers, at which Biden said DeSantis
08:21had done a good job to report on the status of the cleanup.
08:26In addition, DeSantis partnered with Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Inc., to use
08:31the Starlink satellite internet service to help restore communication across the state.
08:36DeSantis supported programs dedicated to environmental conservation and protection from flooding
08:41in Florida.
08:43At the same time, he questioned climate science, supported fossil fuels, opposed renewables,
08:48and sanctioned firms for considering environmental issues in their investments.
08:53The Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act gave Florida $3.75
08:58million for urban forests and nature, $209,000 for fighting pollution, and $78.7 million
09:05to protect the state from climate change impacts.
09:08DeSantis refused to accept $346 million from the Inflation Reduction Act for rebates to
09:14homeowners who want to retrofit their houses, make it more energy efficient, $3 million
09:19to fight pollution, and a program to help low-income people buy solar panels, as well
09:23as $24 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for improving sewage systems
09:28in rural areas.
09:31The rebates were requested by Florida Energy Office and the legislature, but DeSantis vetoed
09:36them.
09:37All other governors, including Republicans, accepted the money.
09:41The money could go to local cities and authorities, and three Florida cities received some funds.
09:47Rhode Island and Kentucky requested to take Florida's money for themselves.
09:52The program should help people lower their energy bills and weatherize their houses while
09:56creating jobs.
09:58Half the money should go to low-income households.
10:01Making a house more energy efficient can cut utility bills by 25% for an average family.
10:07DeSantis later reversed course and attempted to reclaim some of the rejected home energy
10:12rebate funds.
10:14In June 2024, DeSantis vetoed a bill passed by the Statehouse that would have created
10:18a statewide process managed by the Department of Health to issue closures and send warnings
10:22if the bacteria in waterways reached unsafe levels.
10:26Between 2020 and 2023, media outlets saw DeSantis as a likely candidate for the 2024 presidential
10:33election, and various notable people urged him to run.
10:37In September 2021, he called 2024 speculation purely manufactured.
10:43In April 2023, he said, I am not a candidate, so we'll see if and when that changes at
10:48that time.
10:49Trump was leading DeSantis in polls for the Republican nomination, but DeSantis was performing
10:53better than Trump in battleground polling of the general election.
10:57In a straw poll conducted at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference for the 2024 Republican
11:03presidential nomination, DeSantis came in second with 28% of the vote, behind Trump's
11:0859%.
11:10Beginning in 2022, DeSantis became increasingly seen as a contender for the Republican nomination.
11:18Various writers predicted that he could defeat Trump or said that he was preferable to Trump
11:22in view of the January 6 hearings and subsequent straw polls.
11:26These ideas gained more traction after the 2022 midterm elections, when DeSantis was
11:31re-elected governor by almost 20 percentage points, while Trump-endorsed candidates, such
11:35as Mehmet Oz and the Senate race in Pennsylvania, performed poorly.
11:40The release of DeSantis's memoir, The Courage to Be Free, and subsequent book tour, also
11:45increased 2024 speculation.
11:48On May 24, 2023, DeSantis officially launched his bid for president.
11:54It was announced on X, then called Twitter, with assistance from its owner, Elon Musk.
11:59On Jan. 21, 2024, two days before the New Hampshire primary, DeSantis announced on X
12:05that he was suspending his campaign and endorsed Trump.
12:09He had finished in a distant second-place finish to Trump in the Iowa caucuses the previous
12:13week.
12:14DeSantis's campaign finished with nine delegates to the Republican National Convention.
12:20Despite having already dropped out, DeSantis still had his name on the ballot for the 2024
12:25Florida Republican presidential primary and received 3.7 percent of the vote.
12:31DeSantis met his wife, Casey Black, at a golf course at the University of North Florida.
12:37She had been a television host for the Golf Channel and then a television journalist and
12:41news anchor at WJXT.
12:44They married on Sept. 26, 2009, in a chapel at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.
12:50DeSantis is Catholic, as was his wedding ceremony.
12:55The couple lived in Ponte Vedra Beach, near St. Augustine, until it was drawn into the
12:59neighboring 4th Congressional District.
13:02They then moved to a condo owned by Ken Sturman in Palm Coast, north of Daytona Beach, which
13:07remained in the district he represented, the 6th.
13:10They have three children.
13:12He is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion.
13:18In 2022, DeSantis appeared on Time 100, Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people
13:24in the world.
13:26As of Sept. 2023, his net worth was estimated at around $1.5 million, up from $300,000 in
13:332021.
13:34His $1.25 million book deal with HarperCollins in 2022 made him a millionaire by the end
13:39of that year.
13:41On May 24, 2023, Ron DeSantis, the 46th and current governor of Florida, announced his
13:47candidacy for the 2024 United States presidential election.
13:52On Jan. 21, 2024, DeSantis suspended his campaign and endorsed former President Donald
13:58Trump.
13:59DeSantis' campaign finished after having won nine delegates from the Republican National
14:04Convention in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries.
14:09DeSantis won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012 and was re-elected
14:14in 2014 in 2016.
14:17He sought Marco Rubio's U.S. Senate seat in 2016, withdrawing when Rubio announced
14:22he would seek re-election.
14:23In 2018, he was elected governor of Florida, winning re-election in 2022.
14:31DeSantis' aggressive decisions during his governorship led to speculation that he would
14:35run for president.
14:38Rupert Murdoch's New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Fox News promoted DeSantis
14:42as an alternative to former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
14:48In early 2023, he began a book tour for his newly published memoir The Courage to Be Free
14:53in Early Voting States.
14:55DeSantis officially announced his campaign in a Twitter Spaces discussion with X Corporation's
15:00CEO Elon Musk, following the release of his plans to the Associated Press a day earlier.
15:06Technical issues affected the discussion and became a focal point for critics.
15:11His campaign began with an in-person event in Iowa, followed by a tour in early voting
15:15states.
15:16DeSantis focused on his governorship and his policy record.
15:21In particular, he touted his stance on LGBT issues and his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic
15:26in Florida in an effort to differentiate himself from Trump.
15:30Although DeSantis initially had competitive support to Trump according to aggregate 538
15:35polls, the margin between Trump and DeSantis steadily widened over the course of 2023.
15:41I stop at this point today.
15:44We continue to narrate a stage in the life of the candidate for Ron DeSantis.
15:49Soon we will publish part 4.
15:53Until next time, stay curious.
15:56Stay informed and keep exploring the world's incredible stories.