guest: thanks for having me. host: he's got a book tour and is making the rounds. what is the stage of his interest for future political office? guest: governor ron desantis is

certainly doing everything candidates who are interested in running for the presidency should do. he has his book tour going on, he spending a lot of time in early voting states and getting a lot of press and he still continuing to sign bills into law in florida because it's in the middle of a session. all of the stuff you are supposed to take he is taking and he's continuing to make his way to the top of the gop and still seen as trump's top rival. host: he has not formally declared so what's the message he is selling at this point? guest: governor desantis is helping people get to know him a little more. with his book, he was able to tell people a little about what he's about and where he grew up and what he was interested in. he is introducing himself and introducing his family because even though he's done a lot of press around covid and some of the other policies, people still don't really know a lot about him.

that provides an opportunity for him and provides an opportunity for his rivals. host: how so? guest: you have seen trump try to define desantis. he hasn't officially announced he's running and he not expected to announce until even june and he has the luxury of time. you've seen some of the attacks and from trying to portray him as a phony and someone who is hiding something. there is no evidence for those claims but you know trump, he's ready to get down in the dirt right away. host: even before political ambitions came up, is it fair to say that trump and desantis supported each other as far as what they were doing in their respective offices? guest: to a certain extent but we created a timeline of their relationship trump actually endorsed desantis back when he was running for the u.s. house in 2012's was been 10 or 11

years now. at the time, trump had not entered into politics himself. desantis was the one in office and when trump decided to run, he didn't see to santa's offer any full support --. once he became president, use a dissent is really get behind his agenda and he introduced bills like the drain the swamp act so kind of following president trump's messaging at the time. trump then endorsed him when he wanted to run for governor and it did help with his notoriety and name recognition and he ended up winning. when trump is not reelected, things started to fall apart. trump was not present anymore and desantis was governor and he had a foil in joe biden in the

white house we saw him play that up. host: kimberly leonard is here to talk about governor ron desantis and his political ambitions. we've set aside a line for florida residents. you can also text us on that line. governor desantis winning reelection largely in florida, what are the mechanics as far as how he hopes to reproduce that on a nationwide scale? guest: what's interesting about him running his that he did not seek trump's endorsement. he was running on his own record. one of the main things that desantis did differently that many republicans were not doing a number terms was he was running on a very specific list of accomplishments and promises. voters had the opportunity to

say whether they agreed with those policies were not and that's in contrast to many republicans who were running an anti-democrat campaign. he was able to put his record out there in florida but he also tapped into many different communities that had turned away from the gop might be becoming more conservative now like the latino community. there were counties in florida like palm beach and miami-dade that are typically democratic majority counties. they went for desantis this time. i think there is a lot that's changing in florida because so many people moved here from states that dealt with covid policies differently. it seems they moved here and then they supported what governor desantis had done especially as far as the pandemic policies. host: the governor did a recent interview with piers morgan

about many different topics and he was asked about differences between him and former president trump. i want to play you a little bit of that interview. [video clip] >> i think there are a few things. the approach to covid was different. i would have fired somebody like fauci. i think he got too big for his britches and i think he did a lot of damage. in terms of my approach to leadership, i can get personnel in the government who have the agenda of the people and share our agenda. you can bring in your own agenda, you are gone. the way we run the government is no daily drama, focus on the big picture and put points on the board and i think that's very important. >> you haven't got sucked into responding to any of the talk? >> i just don't follow it, i get attacked every day. to me it's kind of background

noise, it's not important for me to be fighting with people in social media. it's not accomplishing anything for the people i represent so we focus on knocking out victories day after day. if i got involved in all the undertow, i would not be able to be an effective governor so i don't think it's something that makes sense for me. host: there is a bit of a contrast. put your own reporting into that on with the governor is saying. guest: i want to address one of the things he was talking about where he said he doesn't get caught up in the drama. that's the case. the desantis circle is very insular and the key things tight and keep things from leaking. it something that has worked so far. desantis has definitely been trying to get under trump's skin since he won reelection in florida. he may not have been directly saying things like i have less drama in my administration or i'm a winner and he's a loser but he was doing things that

already signaled a lot of the arguments he made in that interview. for example, there was a press conference at a roundtable about covid vaccine pessimism and it was at palm beach. that's very close to where trump lives. he was already working to contrast his covid policies with that of former president trump by sort of being -- sending a subliminal message. he held another press conference in which he had a dominion lawyer represent at a roundtable and he praised her abilities. that can under the skin of president trump. even though there may not be directed text similar to trump where he makes these claims, he's definitely been working with little taunts and jabs. i noticed that because i'm in

florida and i see how the governor operates and he's the one who's always cited on these issues. how he has balanced the fight has been different. it's only recently we have seen him become more vocal which is interesting. host: he use the phrase no daily drama. guest: absolutely, when trump was in the white house, there was a lot of back-and-forth. that will probably be true for whoever's in the white house. it depends on who you have surrounding you and what you do with staff when they leak information and so forth. the desantis operation is tightly held. having said that, there are still folks over the course of his career, there probably people who have stories to tell about the time of the governor.

those of the kinds of things that will be coming out during a primary. they could be drama fodder which is how it goes during an election season. host: kimberly leonard is here, brian, go ahead. caller: good morning. i will tie it in real quick. i served under 16 captains. i served at the highest level. i have served under gentlemen captains, all types. by far, the best cap mobile, the most serious who was right on course and everything -- i don't know that i would bring him home to meet my mom, he was hardline. this is about leadership. if we could name one policy, one legal legislation or anything

like that because we keep bringing up former president trump now with desantis. it's tied in. i have -- i am an independent. i'm independent minded high school so i don't get on one side or the other. i never have. it bores me. host:host: it's just childish. what's the question? caller: name one policy because you brought it up already, name one policy that overhaul that trump advocated for in the united states that was so bad it? i'm not talking about his style or anything else. host: we got the point, thank you. guest: voters have different perspectives on what constitutes a good and bad policy and that's one reason why the nation is so divided.

everything from the tax laws to immigration policy and so forth, there is a lot of division on those issues and those of the kinds of differences that show up when you have another presidential election and voters get the opportunity to weigh in and decide how they want the u.s. to be. host: this is a line for people from florida. caller: good morning. i want to let everyone know that me as a florida voter, i'm a staunch trump supporter in the way i see it is after everything trump has been through with the media, he deserves his other four years. desantis will be a great leader in the future. i would vote for desantis because because i want them to

be my governor but i also want him to be president in the future, thank you. guest: this is something i hear a lot from florida voters. i'm in florida as well. they sort of say hang on, is it really his turn and the delight let's keep governor desantis here longer. as a reporter, cover trump rallies and talk to a lot of voters and this is something i hear a lot. one thing i hear more when i go to other states is there are concerns among some republican voters that former president trump might not be electable because he lost in 2020. that's why you hear governor desantis saying call me whatever you want as long as you call me winner and he was trying to draw the contrast having said that, it will be a very fruitful -- a very brutal time. we saw a fragment of how ugly it will get. host: talk about decisions the

governor is making as governor and how that could affect things if he decides to run for president? guest: in terms of policies? host: particular with the parents rights bill and other things as well. guest: first of all, the legislature in florida just sent vouchers for all, school choice to the governor. that was something he wanted to do so basically anyone in florida who has kids can send their kids to a private or religious school instead of public school. there is an immigration measure, anti-illegal immigration measure this week -- making its way to the governor say he will try to run things in a similar vein as trump did, aggressive against immigration. you do have policies being considered, some of the more controversial ones. the legislation is formally

known as the parental rights and education act and is what radix call don't say gay because it limits discussion about gender identity and sexual orientation in the classroom. in an environment where families are very different than they used to look a while ago where you have same-sex parents and nine binary did binary teachers who might be gay. some of them are very nervous about what that will mean in terms of how they talk about their lives or how they talk about having regular conversations. that's something that has been more controversial. it's something they are looking to expand under this session. host: this is from randall, ohio, democrats line. caller: hi, i just wanted to say that i disagree with governor

desantis's statement about policy and dr. fauci. he was trying to get the word out about the virus. other than that, i really like governor desantis and i think he makes a lot of sense. i think he would be a better choice for republicans going forward in the future then trump. or possibly nikki haley because trump has been painted by all the things that have happened. i just wanted to say i appreciated dr. fauci and all he did for the citizens. host: anything guest: guest: from that?

the whole dr. fauci -- there are people that have different opinions on how he did as a leader of the country and his role is traditionally bipartisan and he was a big supporter of former president george w bush hiv initiative across the globe. he had been a public servant for a long time and there were some people who were grateful for his service to our country and what he did to help inform people and others see him as a bogeyman who had the country shut down and wanted it. he's going to be a punching bag when it comes to -- we've seen that with house republicans but probably in the forthcoming election, i wonder two years from now or 1.5 years, how much people will still be thinking about covid policy versus how much they think about things

like inflation if we have a banking crisis or recession or layoffs. that's why it's difficult to make predictions now about where priorities will be. so much can change in the course of a couple of months. host: shelby in tennessee, independent line, hi. caller: hi, i want to say that i hope americans do not forget all that trump did and from the beginning, i think he doesn't have all his ducks in a row. i think there's something wrong with him. something deeply wrong with him. he's a danger and i would like to see, hopefully, before my life is over, a strong woman come in as president.

it's way past time. give us a chance. we are strong, we are smart we don't take no bull. what we are seeing from republicans, i think they cut their own throat and mccarthy, that was host: host: a big mistake. we will keep it to that. guest: does she see herself supporting nikki haley? host: she is no longer guest: with us. guest:one of the things looking at polling now despite everything that has happened with former president trump, you still the leader of the party and still surging in the polls. some of the things that would destroy other politicians where they wouldn't consider having a future in politics, you see the opposite with trump. you see a rally around him and that's probably one of the reasons he was surging in the polls last week because there was this expectation that he would be indicted similar to what we saw with the documents

at mar-a-lago. with think people would step away and say this is too much but you see the opposite happening. if that continues, he is going to win the primary. we will see if it continues. host: let's hear from former president trump from his weekend rally. here's a portion of that. [video clip] >> he's been successful for decades. probably more successful than it is now. but when you get a man elected and there is no quid pro quo. remember those words? i made the perfect call with the ukrainian president. when you are getting a guy so we gets the nomination because he wins the election because -- two years later, the fake news says will you run against the president? and he says i have no comment.

i say that's not supposed to happen. i have no comment? i am not a big fan. host: we probably knew that going in. what about those comments? guest: if desantis runs, he is not officially declared but he sees it as a betrayal. usually, if there wasn't so much baggage around former president trump, you probably wouldn't have other republicans really enter the race. the fact that we are looking potentially at seven different people in the primary shows that there are a lot of republicans who believe they have a shot or trump has been weakened in some way. trump is like wait a minute, this is mine. you would be typically deferential to the leader of the party. he has some resentment about that.

he thinks that he made governor desantis and he is owed loyalty. we both know that there is no such thing as loyalty and politics. this is how it goes. we did a story recently on insider were we looked at jeb bush and marco rubio. they ran against each other in a primary and it's an interesting dynamic of the student becomes the master. you have folks run against each other who were allies and close and this is how it goes. most people assume that if you have someone who's ambitious and younger and wants to go for it, you should not assume it is theirs for the taking. host: you wrote a recent story about governor desantis talking about the death of his sister at the age of 30.