host: we are back with ken cuccinelli. of the never back down pac and he's going to talk with us this morning about the expected presidential run of florida governor ron desantis. good morning. guest: good morning. host: thank you for joining us. guest: my pleasure. host: tell us about never back down. who is a part of it? what is your mission? guest: never back down is a super pac. for viewers not familiar, a super pac is sort of a campaign without a candidate. we formed ourselves to support, first of all the idea of governor desantis running for president. we have been running ads and targeted republicans to tell them more about the governor and create a more favorable environment to make it more likely he will say yes to the question of getting to the run for president. we do not take direction from a campaign once it comes into existence. we play follow the leader. the reason we came together is because all of us, who are working on this, really believe governor desantis, first of all has a spectacular track record, al

columnist from "the washington examiner" and mike huckabee, former presidential candidate and ken cuccinelli, a former dhs official under trump but now he's the founder of the never back down pac supporting ron desantis. so ken, let's start with you. a lot of reaction today. a couple of different ways that people are looking at this. some are saying it was a missed opportunity and a glitch. others saying they're impressed by the number of people trying to get on to twitter. do you wish you did this differently? >> in the super pac, we don't get to describe that. the breaking of twitter, as elon musk said, the biggest story on planet earth yesterday. that's how you raise a million dollars in the first hour. i can tell you somebody that has been on the ground in not just the early states but some others. there's a great deal of enthusiasm for him to get in this race and explain all of his incredible accomplishments in more depth. he does cover the waterfront of conservative policy areas. he's made accomplishments in all of them. all of them. just beyond anything of any other chief executive wi

ken cuccinelli, thank you, good catching up with you. there is a lot of money for the florida governor right now, in fact record sums this early in a race. remember technically, until 6:00 tonight, he is really not in the race. so it is an amazing amount raised early on. also keeping an eye on the dow right now, down about 270 points, in and out of session lows. we're following that and you know the drill when it looks like a deal is looking iffy stocks sell off pretty spiffy. that makes no sense at all but you get my point. we'll have more after this. dad, we got this. we got this. we got this. we got this. we got this. yay! we got this. we got this! life is for living. we got this! let's partner for all of it. edward jones new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. when you sponsor a job, you immediately get your shortlist of quality candidates, whose resumes on indeed match your job criteria. visit indeed.com/hire and get started today. the chase ink business premier card is made for peopl

ken cuccinelli joins me now.the never back down pack which is a group supporting desantis. why are you with desantis and not trump? >> i was proud to work for donald trump at the department of homeland security. a lot of good policies but a lot of what the governor calls drama, a lot of stumbling, we could have done much better and a president can only have four more years where ron desantis has been the most successful chief executive we have seen in america in decades. he raised the tides of all boats, both floridians and, politically, he helped his whole ticket in 2,022. it was a disappointing year for republicans across the country, it was a red wave in florida because of governor ron desantis's leadership. not enough to win the presidency, you've got to hold the house and expand the majority, the president has three elections in a rhonda negative for those running with him. governor desantis has actively helped the rest of his team do better and he has done all of that while defending a down the line list of

. >> dana: for more let's bring in ken cuccinelli, former homeland security secretary. president trump at 53%, desantis 21%. everyone else in the single digits. at this point do you believe that you have a two-man race for the primary on the republican side? >> dana, that's how things stand at the moment and that's before governor desantis even gets in the race. so that's a really favorable position to be in particularly when you consider how well governor desantis is viewed for his spectacular track record across the country. he is the most popular leader, not just republican leader, but leader in america and that has been true for all of 2023 talking about favorable, unfavorable ratings. even trump voters like governor ron desantis. and the more republican voters learn about the governor, about him working his way through college, serving in the military, and never backing down, including in these woke mob fights that you started this segment reporting on, governor desantis is the only major candidate in america on either side who has fought these battles on the side

. >> brian: a guy all over this years in the trump white house and still over it today ken cuccinelliormer dhs acting deputy secretary. ken, as people storm our border, we had 73,000 the last 10 days. you wonder how many amongst them are criminals. this guy was an example of what everybody fears. the killer next door. >> yeah. absolutely, brian. and, look, this was a preventable crime. a preventable killing. and the way to prevent it is to seal our border. this is not inevitable. and a lot of people on the other side talk about well, the crime rate among the illegals, this or that. it isn't the rate. it's that this crime never had to happen. and joe biden's open borders policy only makes it more likely. we are going to be seeing more and more of this in the years to come from the 6 plus million invaders that he has invited, effectively into this country. and as amazing as it is and you guys have done a great job reporting on the open borders policy, and, yet, it's about to become even more open with the takedown of the title 42 policies. a lot of people who want to see a secure border

candidates and he saw the endorsements and sees some traction behind this argument coming from ken cuccinellime that voting for desantis, at the top of the ticket, he could bring along other republicans and solidify majorities in both houses of congress. neil: the battle is on and their arguments are on. i want to take you back to the border, looking differently not from the people trig to trying to police those coming in, but ranch owners dealing with the mess they often leave behind. after this. ys to replace it with a new one of the same make and model. get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ how to grow more vibrant flowers: step one: feed them with miracle-gro shake 'n feed. that's it. miracle-gro. all you need to know to grow. >> i asked the congress for a lot more money for the border patrol. they didn't do it. made it harder. neil: all right. well, back and forth on who is to blame for the mess at the border, from the president saying, look, if they gave me more money. of course, he's blaming republicans for not providing

ken cuccinelli, best of luck for you.now from former president tr trump's side, let's bring in make america great again in spokeswoman. the former president has made it clear that he thinks that ron desantis is being disloyal for running for president. it sounds like he is concerned a bit. >> no, president trump is not concerned. he is speaking the truth. ron desantis has been disloyal and ron desantis would not even be in this position if president tripp had not not endorsed his gubernatorial campaign back in 2018. and ron desantis' ron desantis' announcement today proves that this man is not ready for prime time. he is not ready to be the leader of the free world and save america from joe biden and the democrats disasters and gender. he announced his campaign on twitter. a big-time platform that the majority of republican primary voters don't even use, there was a plethora of technological difficulties. that were quite embarrassing and show his team is not ready but most importantly the message. did not mention ukraine.

let's talk about this man real expert ken cuccinelli had a key position with donald trump. e fired and hired because they were not answering and not producing. ken, you have seen a lot of problems in the past. a lot of challenges at our border. put this in perspective for people watching at home what is going to happen as early as thursday? >> well, brian, there's nothing to compare to historically ever at any point. this is blowing the doors off it. and just taking title 42 off a lot of our folks don't realize that even the biden administration was returning about half of the people they were catching invading our country setting aside the got-aways. half of them going back. no change in the flow, come midnight on thursday, they're going to double the number they let stay in this country and, as you have reported, the flow is going to increase. i mean, there is -- the border as much as people are coming through it now, is also a bit of a dam where people are building up on the other side. and that dam is going to intentionally be broken by the president of the united states

. >> brian: ken cuccinelli says government is not turning things around i should have followed up withions. is he turning people around starting today. so i have no idea. is the governor not turning people around? i thought he -- when he said he was, i thought somebody was going to do that. >> can i say one last thing? i was at the border? i watched border patrol lower a fence so, that people could walk over. this is all intentional. >> brian: it's unbelievable. >> steve: 7:10 now here in the east and a fox news alert. protests turn violent here in new york city over the death of jordan neely on the city's subway as authorities arrest nearly a dozen demonstrators who demonstrated a little too -- not properly. >> brian: absolutely out of control. >> rachel: police recovering a molotov cocktail as activists and family of neely demand jail time for the marine veteran put him in a chokehold. >> brian: he should not be charged. todd? >> todd: take a look the nypd releasing an image of the fire bomb that was recovered. city's police chief says they respect the right to protest but stress tha

has $80 million that he can tap from his re-election race from governor and then something that ken cuccinelli is putting together, a pact that has had great success. never back down. that mike strike you as odd. cuccinelli was in the trump administration and had been a big proponent of everything donald trump was doing as president. their relation chilled on this news that he's putting a pact together to help out ron desantis. earlier on fox business, he explained why. >> the governor has been not only a great grass roots builder, but he's also been a great fund raiser and in this race he's limited by the federal election laws, but the super pact that i participate in leading is not. we have been successful in the fund-raising front and we've been successful in the grass roots front. we have knocked on over 20,000 doors in iowa. no presidential campaign has done that at this point. the presidential campaign doesn't exist yet and we've knocked on over 20,000 doors. we're building a movement and organizing a movement that this governor has inspired with his determine attack. every policy issue

ken cuccinelli was just with us.a former acting deputy secretary of the department of homeland security. and this is -- he put this in perspective. >> there's nothing to compare to historically ever at any point. this is blowing the doors off it. and just taking title 42 off. a lot of our folks don't realize that even the biden administration was returning about half of the people they were catching invading our country. so, with no change in the flow, come midnight, on thursday, they're going to double the number they let stay in this country. the border, as much as people are coming through it now, is also a bit of a dam where people are building up on the other side. and that dam is going to evan tension nally be broken by the president of the united states on midnight on thursday. >> steve: so it's goings to be chaotic. as we just detailed. ainsley brought this up a moment ago. the city of chicago has already declared a state of emergency. because of the migrants. there's also a former states attorney from cook c

ken cuccinelli was there.d it you were going in becauser sout you had a plan and it wahes working to maintain our southern border. what is the plan of this administration? and do you even think that they have meetings lik aell had the ones that that you all. had? sur oh, i'm sure i have meetings, kaili, many of them. but the purpose of thoseey dem meetings is to figure ouolist how they can demolish our border and to bring as many illegal immigrants into this country as humanly possible under president trump, we had a flawless system. if you cross a the border illegally, you were either detained and deported. rwarded,you were sent, as you sh to a safe third nation or you were returned to mexico it. er under npp or you were expelled under title forty two . that's oth there was no othery option. circwere not under any circumstance to be released except if you're going to the emergency room in a truly exigent medical circumstance. when joe biden came ind, he switched the policy from detain and deport to catch and release what we are seeing now is then n end game, the final elemen wth s o

then, ken cuccinelli, founder of "never back down," boarding florida governor ron desantis, -- supportingdesantis, discusses the 2020 four election. and the increasing use of emergency action to change the law without public hearing. watch washington journal, live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span, or c-span now, our free mobile app. join our conversation with your phone calls, facebook messages, texts and tweets. congress returns next week, and the house plans to take up an agreement that once is reached, followed by the senate, on recess for the holiday. the house gaveled back in monday on new eastern to consider legislation addressing the faa outages that halted airline flights, and working to combat the fentanyl drug epidemic. later, a hearing on the commerce department rule on solar parts from china. a reminder, you can watch all our congressional coverage on our mobile app, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. ♪ >> visit c-spanshop.org and save during our father's day sale. save on our collections of c-span home decor, bobbleheads, apparel and more. scan the code on the right to shop.