>> thank you for spending part of your sunday with us, i hope you have a great week ahead. until next week, find us on-line or trey gowdy pod cost, good night from south carolina. "life, liberty and levin" is up next. ♪ ♪ ? hello america, i am mark levin, this is "life, liberty and levin." we we have a great guest, governor desantis. how are you, sir. >> great. mark: i'm doing ga great, i read your book. let me ask you, i don't always ask everyone this

question, this is a fantastic book. easy to read, walks through your life. things you learned that you done know before. -- didn't know before, why did you write the book. >> over last feuer years florida has represented freedom in united states, we've seen that with number of people that have picked up their lives from a lot of these failing states governed by leftist politics they have have come to florida, tell me how glad they are be in florida, other states have followed florida and done well. thatothers that have not and done poorly, people say to me, i just wish our country would be doing what florida is doing with american principles put into action with courage and conviction would work, we talk about the issues that we tackled. where the dividing lines are

in current american society and how i think we have the best arguments, for the direction that n not only statstates but country should go in. mark: this is not a typical politician's book, this is written like an american citizen. the other thing i noticed is there is not gossip in the book. there is not telltale things there is not -- you don't really attack in the book. was that intentional. >> i wrote it, most elected officials are not writing their own books, you write yours, it not easy to do, it comes across more authentic because it is me writing this i don't believe in some gossip stuff, if we have a private conversation three years ago i why would i

cogregurgitate that and put it out there when you were confiding in he. it is not just from leftest elected officials you have woke ideology taking over, corporate america, our bureaucracy. universities, that in you stand for the right thing, you will have to show courage under fire if you want to bring it in for a landing, we had to do that so many different times, that is something that people will be more interested in than me dishing about private conversations i made have had with someone that people know. mark: you are a conservative? what does that mean it you? >> i think the foundation of it is -- understandings american project, our rights come from god not the government. the founders rejected the divine right of kings.

it used to be some people did have rights but a courtesy of the state, we have the god given rights we loan power to the government under a constitution to protect those rights, i think that what we have seen in more modern society is we have seen unmooring of the constitutional foundation, we have an administrative state when is out of control, violates people's freedoms and really been weaponized against fak factions of country that ruling class does not like, we need to reconstitutionallize this government, we're facing now, i think is not what founders intended in terms of how government should be operating. mark: these principles are through out this book, my question, you went to yale. you went to harvard law. you grew up very modest

means. you were a great baseball player. but through all, particularly yale and harvard, how did you maintain your principles, feefaith, belief in gods. >> i talk about the book -- i grew up in down den dunnedun, florida, my father from western pennsylvania and my mother north eastern ohio this is like steel country, blue collar salt of the earth. and florida is eclectic. we have a culture that i grew up in but the rust belt values that raise me. i get to yale, his no idea what i was getting into i didn't wasn't colleges were liberal, i was 18 years old, i show up my first day in florida we wear jean shorts and flip flops and t-shirts, i wear, that you have kids frandover, i was a fish

out of water it was a culture shock, i was not a refined conservative in terms of politics i was into sports. but you sit in the classrooms, you one of yale's motto for god, for country for yale in the classroom, they are attacking religion and god and the united states. i never experienced that, growing up in dennedin, i didn't know if people were republican for democrat, you had them both. that was my expressure to the -- expose tour to left are, if was so different from when i thought was a probial appropriate, i was not influenced i rebelled other way, i got through college and law school, you know i was set, when i was running for

congress, i tell story in book, i was green, i had never run before, i it an impressive resume, i served in iraq there are thing this conservative primary voters would like, but you see yale and harvard people day liberal ervelg latest. liberal elitist. i said, how many people go to washington, look at me, i got through yale and harvard, came out more conservative than when i went in the swamp will have nothing to that, they appreciated that. told myself none of this will fly in the real world. you get out there this is all just pie in the sky. i think that joke on me, i think we see with a lest a lot of the woke idead onology, this is a

reflection what of the colleges produced. mark: circle back to that you graduated with honors. from yale. and you do to hor harvard, same thing but then you go to military, what it was that about? >> i graduated college before 9/11, i remember growing up in '90s cold war was over, we didn't have a care in the world, then 9/11 happened and world changed we were engaged in conflict in afghanistan, pending in iraqi fell that i should sev. we didn't have a draft, i didn't get paid by the navy, to join. my education or anything like that. it was just something i wanted to do. we volunteered to do it. i commissioned while i was at harvard, ended up starting my career down in

northeast florida, and did stents in pl places like iraq, a volunteer for this too, they needed people, i raised my hand, said send me. and i just respected the country so much, i respected people that it served my grandfather was in world war ii, and i just thought it was something i should do. mark: i tell audience this is in this brand-new book this co comes out tuesday, courage to be free. we're in culture war, we didn't start it, i call the marxist left they started it. it is devouring our institutions, our politics, and the private sector. the critical race theory, you have dall of a sudden i feel it is piling on top of us. this is something you as

governor have noticed in classrooms sexual using of little kids, disney -- walt disney has to be rolling in his grave right now with what is happening in disneyland and disney world. you have taken the lead in taking this on as far as governors. tell me about that. what caused you to say, i got to do something about it? >> think about it i got reelected in november 2022, largest vote than any republican governor in florida. 1.5 million votes. make the democratic party in air state's rotten car -- carcass on side of street, yet left can still i'm foi impose their agenda on my

people if i am not keeping an eye on them, i have an understanding that fights are broader than one particular election, you have to fight the woke in halls of government and legislative chambers, we have super majority as republicans in florida. but you also have to be willing to defend your folks against this agenda being shovedd down their throats, you talk about things with young kids and disney, i see that not just through eyes of a governor but eyes of a dad, we have a 6, 4 and 2-year-old at home, we believe as parents, we should be able to send our kids to school, have them watch cartoons without something someone sexual agenda shove down their throat, when the issue came up with with sexualization of curriculum. of course, in florida that is inappropriate. you know, what republican democrat independent parents agree with us.

overwhelmingly. but this was something that left tried to spin up. media tried to spin up. and then disney i think mistakenly got involved. you know, the left was smart to try to pressure disney, for swrirks 60 years in state of florida, they have gotten every thing they want from state of florida until i became governor, i said no, you are not running the state. wire running the state. we instituted the protect protection for students, but said this company, disney, was granted by state of florida 60 years, ago, it's own government, not just favorable regulations, they control their own government in central florida. and we said, that is not going to work. if a company will go down the road, thinking that should stuff should be if their programming you cannot have a relationship where you are joined at hip with the company, we have taken way their self governing

status, making them live under same laws as everyone else and pay their pair share of taxes and honor debts that is good government what you defend your folks. media attacked me for doing thes disney stuff. the county that most disney employees live in, osceola county, we carried it by 7 points. >> the book, the courage to be free by governor desantis, flood a blueprint for america's revival. we're covering some of the issues. you can get it now amazon to .comer to any bookstore starting tuesday. i would do it. we'll be quite back. right back. manage blood sugar levels and contains high quality protein

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mark: welcome back america, governor ron desantis, the question is when you take on the culture wars, on the wokism, and take on the hard left, seeping into our school systems and seeping into disney, which florida has subsidized for decades as you point out. there is some republicans who think you should just

roll over, they say that's small government conservatism. >> think about that, our k-12 schools are public institutions. that are funded by our tax payers. and so that line of thinking is saying, they are public institutions, the people that are elected to direct those institutions have no right to get involved if the lift is pursuing the agenda. so, we can winner election -- every election and we sillstill lose on these, that's untenable. we have to reflect the mission that state of good florida has, we're now going to reorient our universities away from modern ideal of a university impose a certain ideological world view, use it for social activism, we don't think that is appropriate use of a university. we think it is the pursuit of truth.

academic rigor, giving students foundation so they think for themselves and be citizens of a rep of republic, all tenure professors have to be reviewed of 5 years, they can be let g we appointed 7 conservative board members to a small liberal arts school we fund, new college in sarasota, they will turn it into nation's premiere classical public liberal arts college, we're putting money to bring in good professors, but we're getting ideaiology out, we we have every right to do it. some people think you have the right to operate in a university, and do whatever you want and have acts --

taxpayers fund it. mark: i hear you say free speech, academic freedom, the principles that you are supporting. it is not a mistake that the 1960s bomb throwers are tenured professors. they knew how to devour the institutions. now, you took on the college board which was trying to impose critical race theory among other things. throughout the country, you said not in my state. we want merit, and highest possible academic achievement, then you were attacked by people who purposely twisted when you were saying. -- what you were saying that you oppose allowing people to learn about african-american history. >> sure. florida our standards require teaching all aspects

of black history it is important. when we ban critical race theory we were right to do, we required in same bill that schools have stories of inspiration about great floridians and great americans when a va variety of different backgrounds, i want students to be inspired they can do well in florida, critical race theory saying some are prepessors and some are oppressed when kind of message is that for our kids. college board was trying to impose critical race theory, they were trying to im pose in a black decides course queer theory, for our

taxpayers to support that indoctrination is not something we want to do. we are only state to publicly oppose, that i can guarantee we're not the only state that had a problem with it, they will miss represent you when you do that, they will call you names and demagogue likeliest likes to do -- like the left likes we cannot allow dem demagoguery of left to veto our actions, i think our story in florida showings, medias that spasms with us. if you are firm in your convictions, if you tell people where you stan the truth does win out, people realize that game now, they understand what goes on. they can see through it, i think better than they have ever been able to do. mark: asking you about immigration, you have taken on the issues because they affect our state.

in case of immigration, you decided you know what, we have sanctuary cities and states, we have mayors and governors, proudly announces they are sanctuary cities and states. let me test it. you send a couple hundred illegal aliens to martha's vineyard. the roof blows out of liberal temple. what do you say to those in the liberal temple about that. >> you have a situation where the people advocates for open borders, never had to face the consequences of open borders. is this just virtue signals or is something they believe in. and so the proof was in the pudding, it was only 50 that showed up. to martha's vineyard. and they actually advertise like in their town sc scsquare they have office to help, everyone is

welcome, they called out national guard, they got these people deported off their island the next day. just shows you, that the liberal elite in our nation, they want to impose burden on people they don't like they don't want to have to share. you have mayor of new york city, that went to southern border, there is an effort to make sure the sanctuary cities were feeling what is going on. now, we were happy to be involved in doe, doing that, i know texas has done a lot, i would rather then secure the border and stop the nonsense we know they want the open border, that is a desire policy of what we're doing, we deal with it in flood and the keys, they will have boats from haiti or cuba, we think that regime sends from cuba, and the coast guard is great to work with, by biden will not give them adequate

resources, i have had to declare state of emergency, i have my state boards and law enforcement, we are working with coast guard this is a big mission cost a lot of money, bou but -- biden has invited a lot of the problems. mark: why do you think he has done this. >> i think it is idea long ideological. you go back to 2020 debates it was enforcing a border they say unjust and racist. i think they consider themselves global citizens, not as much american, what right do we have to keep someone out. i think is their line of thought. it very much a post ford -- ford modern leftist mentality, i don't think that average blue blue collar bu d

democrat want open borders. some of reason that left wanted it because they became open borders advocates in -- to trump administration, i don't know it is well thought out. but, the result has been, we have more drugs coming in than we have over 100 thousand overdose deaths, not all are fentanyl but a lot are, we have criminal aliens coming in last fiscal year there was over 90 people to terrorist watch lists that came, that is what they know. i think it has been a diswasser and humiliating, we can't even maintain control of our own territorial integrity with china flying a balloon, over the continental u.s. and spying on us, there is a

feckless administration. mark: the book, "the courage to be free: florida's blueprint for america's revival." by governor desantis, i encouraged to go to amazon.com get your copy there, and major book store on tuesday, this is his first exclusive interview, we'll be right back.

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jon: welcome to fox news live i am jon scott in new york, train operator norfolk southern will resume

shipping toxic waste from last month's train derailment in ohio, they ordered company to stop the disposal of contaminated water and soil. the move in response to backlash from there are states that refused to take the waste. >> upa sa waste. >> "wall street journal" reporting that department of energy say its likely covid-19 escaped from a lab in china. classified documents leaked to newspaper say that department made that conclusion with quote, low confidence. fbi reached a similar version with moderate confidence. i'm jon scott back to "life, liberty and levin." mark: welcome back america. we're who governor republican ron d ron desanron ron

desantis, his brand-new book, "the courage to be free: florida's blueprint for america's revival." you have watcheddest on years, i don't play games with guests. i am not andrea mitchell and jim acosta and i first want to be, my goal is to have the guest, governor. be treated with respect for him to explain his story. why he is the governor of florida. what he wants to do for the country. which bring us to media. you have people trying to cherry pick your phrases, take shots at you, andrea mitchell the other day talking about how you done want african-american history taught, which was a lie. this is media today, is it not? >> it is, i think that the corporate press has always had a liberal bias, you remember president reagan,

he could beat them, they could not touch him, they tried. but you have they are motivated by left but detached from facts, it all about the narrative. whatever the narrative they can spin, they know a lot of bogus, by the time we debunk it some people will probably have believed it, if they could get that first shot out, yes, the next day, day after that people realize they were not right, but you know 10% believed it they think that damage has been done. i think it is lowest common denominate or. denominator. the b flip side is when they attack me, our voters view that as confirmation that i'm doing a good job. they would not becoming after him the way they did, during covid everything that we did protecting people's jobs and schools, i remember

we said kids need to be in school, first state saying 100% of schools have to be open, they came after me with reckless abandon, the parents were with me. we were doing right thing, i think they are in position, corporate press conservative half of nation does not believe anything they say any more. but some of their attacks are so outlandish and so bogus some, people who may not reject them out of hand realize more and more they are not shooting straight with them. mark: y i don't think that new york is times and "washington posts" and tv networks have up flew know they used to or viewership. they ven to representation they used to, they keep digging in. do you think it is because as long as they have -- almost like having a base in a political party, as long as they have their base this good enough. >> i think it is, the way that newspapers change you need the on-line

subscribers, if you are arety deviating from what they want to hear you can lose the subscribers. i talk about we new media would go after he, i get elected by 32,000 votes. i come in, my view was, i may have won 50% of vote but i have 100% of executive power, i will ute use it and be bold, part was to be on offense. if you are not on offense, you are a sitting duck you let the them come and take pot shots at you, we came out of the gate we were off to the races, it hard to keep up with you, when you are always doing new things and leading on different issues we have kept that pace going, throughout my tenure as governor and people see out there they

see you are active, but it makes it more difficult for tnarratives to take hold. mark: you address this at leledge at book. -- length in the back. i think a profound point. if you are not on offense if tin the game you are defense onal r ways responding is that your advice in. >> absolutely, it is different if you a member of congress, easier for an executive to be on offense, one thing i did, i compiled all constitutional authorities, governor had at story authorities, i knew what i could do by myself and what is my relationship with the local government officials, i removed bad officials employee understood that you have an agenda to passed or stick,

you don't just say i want it and it happens you have to get it through the expheks checks and balances, other thing to give, i decided no polls, i don't do polls, you and i could go out and poll a group of 100 people, that is just the static analysis of how they respond to a certain question. if i phrase the question differently, probably a different response, i don't need to know the static view, i need to know, if i set out a vision, an execute that vision and produce favorable results then will they be with me, as a leader don't be captive to public opinion, shape public opinion, i think we have proven to do that. final thing that is important, when you are in government there there is a lot of negative influences,

if you are here working for us we have 22 million people that we're fighting for, if your desire to to anything other than serve those people, you are gone. no leaking, none of your own agenda. and we laid that down early, from the time we did that, i didn't have a single leak in administration for 4 years, i ran highest profile government more reelection campaign, not one leak from my campaign apparatus, that is how you know you have people committed to mission, i want them to serve the people, and have act after have success afterwards. mark: your battle with the medical, federal bureaucracy. in washington, d.c. how you decided to take that on. what expertise that you use to take them on. that you decided to follow aus opposed to some advise

they were giving. all in in great book, "the courage to be free: florida's blueprint for america's revival." get y copy on amazon.com, we'll be right back.

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diarrhea, trouble sleeping, tiredness, and anxiety. detect this: i stay undetectable with fewer medicines. ask your doctor about switching to dovato. mark: welcome back america. you will really like this book, an easy read, full of very interesting information. you can get it at amazon.com right now, governor desantis our battle over covid-19 with fauci with the bureaucracy with the biden administration. the threats. i remember i took the vaccine, condition remember some one, got the booster then i got covid. i said all right enough, but i was in florida. you had 24 sites set up. >> the. >> >> i went there immediately. i got it. it was so over in t 24

hours, i hear from washington it is not proven, i am the best g guinea pig is worked. then they cut off your supply. >> this exposed the rot in medical establishment and our elite medical bureaucracy they say -- month clonal antibods were not prove en, en, they will push an mrna shot on six-month-old babies with almoalec bal aa almost no data. i would have respected cdc and nih, maybe because i didn't deal with them enough. i figured they were medical people, they would be good, they embraced lockdowns, it

was clear it didn't work, they college clung to that and embraces school closures, they wanted to enforce the masks, they won't admit they are wrong, and remember, when you have george floyd protests, you had public health establishment yelling at people on flood f florida being on their boat or playing golf, they didn't want you to live the house, then you have people protesting police, public health establishment signs a letter saying we don't want you protesting covid restrictions, stay home, but if you do this, that is okay, that is when you knew it was a bunch of politics it was a fraud. and so we had to fight those folks, from april of 2020 we chartered our own courts, we were right, a governor is

right having treatments when they say not to do the treatments, i should not have had to do these treatments, they should have been add advocating to treat team, they want to control your behavior. and that is why they would want vaccine mandates even when it was apparent, it was about the control, they wanted to exercise power over others, you look at the entrenched bureaucrats, they need to be cleaned out, they failed, they are not a -- advocates for best interest of people. this has been a disas disaster. >> it is hard to remove them . >> there is a proposal that i think a lest us wanted to see -- a lot of us wanted to see for a schedule f, anyone with any policy role, is

classified as schedule f . they can be removed by the president. tthe left would litigate that but i think we would win on this in supreme court, one thing to have a job rule or the bowels of bureaucracy. but president of united states has article ii power. who controls the executive branch, the elected president or is it some pure create in the bows of the bureaucracy that can't be fired, i think that push needs to come to shove, but whoever get majority of electoral college has right to impose their agenda through the executive branch, they did with president trump, they tried to nullify the election. with the collusion hoax, we constitutionalizing government starts with

reconstitutionallizing the executive branch. mark: 100%, we'll be right back.

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mark: welcome back america, we're here with governor ron desantis of florida, book is "the courage to be free: florida's blueprint for america's revival." you can get it on amazon.com

right now. if you order it, you can get it tomorrow. governor post constitutional america is that where we are? >> i think so unfortunately, that has been invited by beh beha behavior of congress, in florida we had an issue we have a group that was doing a domestic violence mission with massive fraud, legislature came in next week, and zeroed that out, we held them accountable through the budget, they don't doe that in washington, you have so much pow they're se -- power that is being exercised in way they that is not beneficial at to voters. you have power exercised by the nongovernment institutions, corporations doing things like esg, they

are utilizing public power, if "wall street journal" banks will not give a loan to someone say in firearm industry, that is changing the go up rights in america. -- gun rights in america, they are not getting votes to do that or winning election, but they bring power to bear in a way that affects public policy. i think you have to electric at how the governmenting become unmoored from constitutional accountability and look at the other institutions that are exercising effectively public power. mark: you have social media platforms working with fbi, biden administration, you have a justice department that is targeting parents, and targeting pro-life individuals and a former president, republican members of congress, and republican state legislators, this concern you? >> absolutely. think about what the federal law enforcement doj, they

are enforcing the desires of one faction of our country against the factions they don't like. that is not how you have equal justice under the law, a lot of other stuff that we've seen of biden administration has been equally problematic, but, when reagan came in he talked about how government was the problem it was a clumsy government, not saying there was no corruption, but it has been weaponized in a way that is more dangerous today than 40 years ago. mark: you have suggested maybe some of the government needs to be premoved from washington d.c. and spread. >> i think if you look. dc votes 95 v 95 -- there is an accumulation of group think. if you took like one of these divisions and you put them in arkansas or on the pacific coast, i think that

would be better, it has gotten really tox toxic in d so many people going in same partisan direct, regardless of the outcome of the the actual election. >> closing thoughts from governor ron desantisgo whether weod return. so every day, you can say... ♪ youuu did it! ♪ with centrum silver. ♪ for skin as alive as you are... don't settle for silver. harness the power of 7 moisturizers & 3 vitamins to smooth, heal, and moisturize your dry skin. gold bond. champion your skin.

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mark: welcome back america. governor, fantastic book. "the courage to be free: florida's blueprint for america's revival." i am to encourage you folks to get it on amazon. >> i think we show in the book, there is a lot of frustration with the country. we have lost our mojo in a lot of different respects, not just over last new years but last maybe decade or more. but i think what florida shows is you could stand for the right things, and take on a lot of the elites that are doing damage to our society, and you can win,

there is a better way, there is a better way that people in states can be successful and they way that united states can be successful once again. mark: been a great pleasure. >> thank you for having me, appreciate it. mark: it is a great book. "the courage to be free: florida's blueprint for america's revival." see you next time on "life, liberty and levin." ♪ "the wall street journal" of reporting today joining the fbi in their assessment has now concluded a lab leak is the most likely origin of the global pandemic based on new intelligence reports with the national laboratory which is a part of the department of ene energy. good evening everyone welcome to the home of "the next revolution" we were the first to lay all of this out over

two year