Speaker | Time | Text |
---|---|---|
With COVID, from day one, he was always trying to look at the data. | ||
You know, and so by the time I started working, it was a little over a year ago. | ||
It was spring 2021 before Delta surge started. | ||
And Delta, it was bad. | ||
I mean, it was bad in Florida and everywhere in the country. | ||
And a lot of people had COVID and were very sick. | ||
Um, and during that time, you know, Governor DeSantis, I would see him almost every day and he would be reading the studies, he'd be reading the latest information from Israel, from Europe, from countries that were ahead of us in the Delta surge. | ||
And he saw that, number one, the vaccine is not stopping transmission of the virus. | ||
So the mandates made no sense at all. | ||
And he doubled down, like no matter what, every single press conference, and we had press conferences every day during that time, we would get reporters yelling in his face about When are you going to do a lockdown? | ||
When are you going to do a mask mandate? | ||
What about vaccine mandates? | ||
And he'll always just say no, I mean, despite all of this pressure, because he knew what | ||
the data said. | ||
And speaking of our governor, I am now going to bring out, oh, that could be the gov calling | ||
into the show right now. | ||
I am not deterred by any smear piece from these legacy media outlets. | ||
unidentified
|
The only reason they're attacking her is because she does a great job and she's very effective at calling out their lies and their phony narratives. | |
And so, whenever they're smearing somebody, You know that person is over the target, and so they're scared of that. | ||
I would be much more concerned with my press secretary if the Washington Post was writing puff pieces about her. | ||
unidentified
|
Then I would think something's wrong. | |
Man, how good is that? | ||
Now make some noise for Christina Bouchard. | ||
Alright Christina. | ||
So why don't we just clarify it in case anyone from Media Matters is here. | ||
Are you an agent of another government or foreign entity sent to Florida to take us out from the inside? | ||
unidentified
|
Absolutely not. | |
Oh, they shut her mic. | ||
They shut her mic. | ||
That was a show, right? | ||
No, that was Media Matters doing that. | ||
They don't want me here tonight, I guess. | ||
But no, no, I'm not an agent of any foreign government. | ||
I don't know how I would have been hired by the state of Florida. | ||
We had background checks, you know, like to get hired. | ||
Right. | ||
And this thing that they were accusing you of, you actually had on your resume that you've worked for some other people in other countries. | ||
Absolutely. | ||
I think the fact that I worked in like a former Soviet country and in Eastern Europe, that's actually what helped me get this job because I know | ||
what communism does and what it is and that's what we're fighting against here, right? | ||
So for the people that don't know you too well or only know you through Twitter, | ||
can you tell people a little bit of your story? | ||
Because it's actually a perfect story for someone to come here to Florida to defend freedom, to defend the governor, to defend all these people, and all that stuff. | ||
Yeah, sure. | ||
So I don't know how much detail you want me to go into, but like you, I'm from Los Angeles. | ||
I grew up in California, so the People's Republic of California. | ||
Back when I was a kid, it wasn't as bad. | ||
But with Gavin Newsom, I mean, I know you guys saw some of his latest hits. | ||
It's gotten really, really bad. | ||
But when I was in college, I studied international relations. | ||
I was always really into foreign policy and international economics, too. | ||
So I ended up Long story short, working in Eastern Europe, I worked in the country of Georgia, I studied abroad in Russia, and I learned a lot about that part of the world, and basically the legacy of communism, and just how bad it was, and how the effects are still being felt today, even though these countries are not. | ||
communist anymore. You know, it's not something you recover from very quickly. So after seeing | ||
how California, such a beautiful state, was destroyed by one-party rule by progressive | ||
Democrats, long story short, that's how I became a conservative. Now how I came to Florida is a | ||
little bit of a different story. | ||
It was during COVID. | ||
I was living in Washington, D.C. | ||
I was working as a political consultant, so I worked on campaigns in other countries. | ||
But during COVID in D.C., I mean, it was miserable. | ||
It was the entire city's lockdown. | ||
People in my neighborhood are wearing masks outside. | ||
I was running outside one day. | ||
I got yelled at for not wearing a mask while I was on a run. | ||
That was probably the moment I realized I have to leave. | ||
And this was also, the worst part was, it wasn't just the mandates that were making people, like, act like this. | ||
It was that they genuinely, in their hearts, they wanted to comply. | ||
They wanted to conform. | ||
Like, that's the mentality of progressives these days, unfortunately. | ||
Leftism and communism, it's a very conformist mentality. | ||
And I just got depressed looking at this all around me. | ||
D.C., you know, it's like 95% voted for Biden. | ||
And I just felt like I'm in the wrong place after the election of 2020. | ||
And just a lot of stuff that happened after that, I realized this is the wrong place for me. | ||
Florida was like the bright light in the darkness. | ||
It was like the West Berlin of the Cold War, right? | ||
unidentified
|
Like this is where freedom still lives. | |
And so I'm like, okay, I have to come to Florida. | ||
I love what Governor DeSantis is doing. | ||
He is really standing up against the whole like biomedical security state, the mandates, | ||
the restrictions, the lockdowns. | ||
Life is normal in Florida. | ||
And so I went for CPAC 2021, met some people who worked with Governor DeSantis | ||
and spoke with them, got to know them. | ||
And long story short, that's how I ended up coming to Florida | ||
unidentified
|
So, very blessed to be here. | |
It's really remarkable how Florida Man, the caricature of Florida Man, you know, this guy with a cigar in one hand and he's wrestling an alligator and ripping a baby out of its head on a golf course. | ||
And it's like Florida Man knew something, right? | ||
Florida Man was doing it right. | ||
I really, for all of you that are born and bred Floridians, holy cow, you really, you saved us. | ||
You really did. | ||
So, so I know people always want to know insider things about the governor and you Can't share anything that's not to be fully shared. | ||
But when you got here, you start working for him. | ||
Now COVID's going crazy. | ||
It was not easy for him to get out there and say, hey, no, I'm not going to close the state. | ||
I'm going to let people go to work. | ||
I'm not going to inject everybody, all that stuff. | ||
Can you talk a little bit about his thought process and how he made decisions? | ||
Well, the first thing to understand about Governor DeSantis is that even though he's not a doctor or a scientist by training, he's a smart guy and he likes to read in detail before he makes a policy decision. | ||
So with COVID, from day one, he was always trying to look at the data. | ||
You know, so by the time I started working, it was a little over a year ago. | ||
It was spring 2021 before Delta surge started. | ||
And Delta, it was bad. | ||
I mean, it was bad in Florida and everywhere in the country. | ||
And a lot of people had COVID and were very sick. | ||
And during that time, you know, Governor DeSantis, I would see him almost every day and he would be reading the studies. | ||
He'd be reading the latest information from Israel, from Europe, from countries that were ahead of us in the Delta surge. | ||
And he saw that number one, the vaccine is not stopping transmission | ||
of the virus. | ||
So the mandates made no sense at all. | ||
And he doubled down, like no matter what, every single press conference, | ||
and we had press conferences every day during that time, we would get reporters yelling in his face | ||
about when are you going to do a lockdown? | ||
When are you gonna do a mask mandate? | ||
What about vaccine mandates? | ||
And he'll always just say no, I mean, despite all of this pressure, | ||
because he knew what the data said. | ||
And so that's very different from a lot of politicians. | ||
They would look at more like what the political data says. | ||
So like the polling data and the focus groups and whatnot, but he's not that kind of a politician. | ||
unidentified
|
He is a leader. | |
That means he looks at reality and makes a decision based on that. | ||
And then people come along with him, right? | ||
And so like with mask mandates even, he knew that even with Delta, as bad as it was, | ||
thank God it wasn't affecting children severely. | ||
So he thought it's more important. | ||
I mean, he's a dad. | ||
unidentified
|
He has little kids. | |
He knows how important it is for kids to, like, have a normal life and go to school and be with their friends and be in their routines, right? | ||
And so that was one of the things that was non-negotiable for him. | ||
Like, schools are going to be open and kids are not going to be forced to wear masks. | ||
The parents can make the choice, but kids are not going to be forced. | ||
And so, he was attacked non-stop for that. | ||
And I, you know, I heard him talking to people, like, whether it was in private or in public at a press conference, and he was always saying, like, look at the data. | ||
Kids are okay. | ||
It's going to be worse for kids to be living in, like, this dystopia and growing up without seeing faces and this and that. | ||
So, like, now he's right. | ||
Now nobody wants to remember, like, that they criticized him for this. | ||
Now everyone pretends they were on board with him the whole time with schools being open with, you know, no mask mandates and, you know, they're trying to memory hole it. | ||
But we remember how many people attacked him. | ||
We remember that he was really the first Politician to come out and say like enough, you know, it's going to be up to the parents and now everyone has followed and that's great We're very happy about that. | ||
But like somebody had to stand up and take the heat and at that time There were polls coming out last summer saying that most parents wanted mask mandates and he said okay That's because they they're afraid they're being sold lies by the media and they're being basically manipulated into thinking this And lo and behold, he was right. | ||
He had to just make a decision that was unpopular at the time, and now everyone realizes, like, he was right. | ||
Alright, that's what leadership is, I think. | ||
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
Don't you guys sort of feel like he actually is the president in a way, right? | ||
Like, in a way, if America's gonna continue, he's sort of, he's, make, exactly, make America Florida, I think you mean, yeah. | ||
Make America Florida, exactly. | ||
Were there ever any moments in the heat of all of it that he almost cracked and gave in? | ||
Because everybody was coming after him all the time. | ||
I mean, even now, still, they're trying it. | ||
I think when people come after him, it makes him even more resolute in what he's doing. | ||
The more that the media attacks... You saw the clip that you ran right before, like, we started talking. | ||
The clip about me. | ||
When I got attacked, he said, you know, that's great. | ||
When Dr. Latipo, you know, our great Surgeon General, he was attacked... Thank you. | ||
He's awesome. | ||
He gets attacked by the media all the time. | ||
I remember I was with the Surgeon General and the Governor and we were at a Wawa somewhere in the middle of Florida in Tampa Bay and I remember in the Tampa Bay Times the front page was a story about Dr. Latipo and how he's an anti-vaxxer quack and all of this nonsense and so It was when he was new. | ||
He wasn't confirmed yet as the Surgeon General. | ||
Like, Senate still had to do the confirmation. | ||
So I was a little bit concerned. | ||
I look at the paper. | ||
I'm like, Dr. Latipo, like, are you feeling okay? | ||
You know, he just came from California. | ||
He's not a politician. | ||
Being in the public eye is kind of new to him. | ||
So I was like, are you feeling okay? | ||
And he's like, yeah, as long as the governor's okay. | ||
And the governor said, look, The more that people are attacking Joe, that's what he calls Dr. Latifov, the more people are attacking Joe, the better. | ||
Because that means he's doing something right. | ||
And I think that's true. | ||
So speaking of doing something right, I think most of us can agree we're kind of doing it right here in Florida and people are living free and all that stuff. | ||
Is there anything that in Florida right now we're not doing right or places that the governor or the administration is going, oh we have to fix this or that? | ||
unidentified
|
That's a great question. | |
You didn't think I was going to make it easy for you, did you? | ||
We can always be doing better. | ||
I'm really proud of what Florida has done, of the example that we are to the country. | ||
Um, we are a leader in school choice, could always do more on that. | ||
Um, and I believe that'll happen. | ||
Um, you know, there's a lot of conservatives come to me and say like constitutional carry is a big priority for them. | ||
And that's something the governor has said that he is committed to doing before, um, before he leaves office. | ||
So I believe that I, I've never heard him say something that he doesn't follow through on. | ||
So. | ||
You know, there are always ways we could improve, and we're always trying to listen to people, listen to Floridians, and look at what's going on in other states, other countries that we might be able to use, and we might be able to replicate here. | ||
But I do think Florida has been a good example for the country. | ||
So what else? | ||
Yeah, you can applaud that. | ||
Florida's been a pretty good example. | ||
What else do you think that these folks can do to help Governor DeSantis fight this thing, to get involved? | ||
Like, how can people, you know, beyond voting, we get it, they're all going to get out in November and vote, and he's going to win something like 90% of the vote. | ||
There, you heard it first. | ||
Yeah, what else can people do, do you think? | ||
Yeah, you know, but that, what you said is really important, because, like, I go to a lot of places in Florida with the governor. | ||
I think he's been to all 67 counties this year. | ||
And I go to a lot of those places, and people come up and say, like, how great he is and how, like, they're going to vote for him for president. | ||
Now, I always say, wait, wait, back up. | ||
He's not running for president. | ||
He's running for re-election as the governor of the great state of Florida. | ||
So you need to vote in November, like, of this year. | ||
So that's what I'm always trying to remind people. | ||
She almost broke some serious news here tonight. | ||
We don't want to take anything for granted. | ||
Because like you said, 90% of the vote, I mean, that'll be great. | ||
I think he deserves it. | ||
He deserves 100%. | ||
But Florida, it's always been a swing state. | ||
I believe it's becoming more of a red state thanks to Governor DeSantis' leadership. | ||
But we never take anything for granted. | ||
You know, you have to always run like you're 10 points behind. | ||
And that's what he's doing. | ||
He's working hard. | ||
And that's why vote is my number one thing. | ||
Talk to your friends, family about it. | ||
You know, don't take it for granted that he's going to win just because his opponents are very weak, which is true. | ||
But like, you can't take anything for granted. | ||
You never know what's going to happen. | ||
So I think that's probably the main thing. | ||
And then get involved at the local level. | ||
Like, there are these days, I think, Conservatives are realizing how important school boards are. | ||
It was never that big of a thing until the last couple of years. | ||
I think parents have realized, like, how much power they have over your family's life, over your kids' lives, and how much they've abused their power in some places, including here in Florida. | ||
Yeah, unfortunately, that was one that did. | ||
And there were others as well. | ||
And so I think that's something that We can learn from and that I know a lot of great conservatives are running for school board including in Broward and everywhere in Florida actually this fall so we need to replace the ones that acted like petty dictators right and so getting involved locally is important. | ||
Well, I'm going to bring out our other two guests in a moment who are also great Floridians, but I just want to say, since we've got a room full of people here, that you guys are just doing an incredible job and you helped me make the move here and live a better life here and all that stuff. | ||
So make some noise for Christina, everybody! | ||
If you're looking for more honest and thoughtful conversations about politics instead of nonstop yelling, check out our politics playlist. | ||
And if you want to watch full interviews on a variety of topics, watch our full episode playlist all right over here. |