And we're less than two months out from the Iowa Caucuses, believe it or not. Last night, former President Trump urged his supporters in Iowa to help him seal up the nomination in mid-January. But with a fierce battle underway between two of his rivals, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says he is still the one that has the best chance to challenge and defeat Donald Trump, and he says Trump's attacks against him prove it. Joining us now from Iowa is Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida. Thanks so much, governor. I want to start on Israel. President Biden is out with a new op-ed this week. He calls for a two-state solution ultimately. Even before the October seventh attacks, you have cast doubt on President Biden's calls for a two-state solution. How do you think this should end then for the Palestinians? Do you think Israel should occupy the to the death of the Israel-to-Ghazas Strip? What's your view of what comes after Hamas is defeated?

Well, I think the fatal flaw with the push for a so-called two-state solution is that the Palestinian-Arabs have never embraced Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. I mean, that ultimately, when Israel's made offers in the past, that was the sticking point. You don't want a two-state that ends up just being a stepping stone to the destruction of Israel. I don't think that that should be contingent on any aid that they pursue that. I would also note, Jake, for many, many decades, people in DC said you're never going to be able to have relations in the Middle East between Israel and any other country unless you have that. Yet we saw under the Trump administration, the Abraham Accords, where they were able to make peace with many countries in the Middle East and probably would have ended up being able to do it with Saudi Arabia had we not had the October seventh attack. Now, going forward, I think Israel needs to do what it's best to defend themselves. I would note, Gaza was not under Israeli occupation. They pulled out in 2006. They uprooted thousands of their own Israeli citizens and forced them to leave the Gaza Strip.

The idea was give the Arabs down there an opportunity to make something of it. Unfortunately, they turned to Hamas. Hamas used money to build a big terrorist infrastructure and ultimately wage attacks for many years and then the devastating October seventh attack. Israel cannot allow history to repeat itself.

Right, but what comes next? I think that you would agree probably that Israel occupying Gaza is not going to result in peace in the region. Do you think that there should be a Palestinian state where Gaza is?

Oh, I think that that would end up becoming a hotbed of terrorism. I think we need to let Israel win this war. We should support them publicly and privately to actually finish the job. Because if you just do some glancing blows, Hamas reconstitute itself, we're going to end up in this same cycle going forward. Israel's in a situation where they suffered the biggest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. You have an organization in Hamas that wants to wipe Israel totally off the map. This is not just some minor dispute. This is an existential threat to the survival of the world's only Jewish state. I think they have to do whatever they can to protect their people and to make sure that this never happens again.

Something happened the other day that I wondered what you thought about because you launched your campaign on Twitter, now known as X. Right now, major companies such as Apple and Disney are pulling their ads from X because Elon Musk, and openly endorsed this anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that Jews are conspiring to replace white Americans with minority immigrants. I wondered if you saw the comment and if you condemn it.

I did not see the comment. I know that Elon has had a target on his back ever since he purchased Twitter because I think he's taking it in a direction that a lot of people who are used to controlling the narrative don't like. I was a big supporter of him purchasing Twitter. I think they're obviously still working some stuff out, but I did not see those comments.

All right, well, let me just show you. Here's a post claiming that Jews are pushing dialectical hatred against YTS and are flooding the country with hordes of minorities, and Elon Musk replies, You have said the actual truth. He goes on to say that he's talking about the ADL and other Jewish groups are pushing replacements of YTS. It's a lot of condemnation for singling out a specific religious group during this time of rapidly rising anti-Semitism. I know you've been very upfront when you see anti-Semitism on the left. Is anti-Semitism on the right something that concerns you as well?

Across the board. Actually, I think in the advent of these attacks, the amount of anti-Semitism that we've seen has really surprised me. I'm somebody that signed major legislation in Florida to combat anti-Semitism on college campuses. And yet what you've seen come out since then, and you have seen it on both sides. But I would say this, the difference is that on the left, that tends to be attached to some major institutional power, like some of our most august universities. Whereas I think on the right, it tends to be more fringe voices that are doing it, but it's wrong no matter what. I don't think that we've seen anti-Semitism this bad in the world, probably since the Second World War.

I don't know how fringe the voices are, to be completely frank. I mean, Elon Musk is the wealthiest man in the world, and we've seen some major conservative media figures, Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, and others pushing really hateful stuff backing this nonsensical theories of white genocide, white replacement theory. I would ask that major Republican figures like you use your voices as well to stand against it. But let's turn to another topic.

Yeah, but Jake, with all due respect on that, I mean, to have somebody who's blogging and doing stuff like that, okay, that's an issue. But to compare that for how some of these most powerful universities in the country have responded to this. We have Jewish students fleeing for their lives because you have angry mobs, and yet they have not done what they need to do to protect the safety and wellbeing of those students. I have constituents in Florida whose kids don't even want to go to campus in the advent of this because of such a hostile environment. I do think on the institutional side, you've seen this become part of a left-wing movement, a very significant pro-Hamas movement, and it is backed by institutional power.

Yeah, absolutely. Jewish students, just like Muslim students, Black students, gay students, all students should feel safe on campuses. The concern Jewish students have right now is very serious. I'm just saying, Elon Musk is a pretty powerful guy, and he's out there endorsing some pretty hideous anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and I still haven't heard you condemn it.

Well, because I haven't seen it, I know you tried to read, I have no idea what the context is. I know Elon Musk. I've never seen him do anything. I think he's a guy that believes in America. I've never seen him indulge in any of that. It's surprising if that's true, but I have not seen it, so I don't want to sit there and pass judgment on the fly.

Let's turn to President Biden this week at his Chinese, at his summit, on the Pacific Summit, he referred to Chinese President, Xi, Xi, Ping, as a dictator. Now, yesterday you agreed with that, but you also criticized personal diplomacy more generally. You said, You're not going to win these guys over with personal charm. I mean, these guys are killers. Just to be clear, you're calling Xi, Xi, being a killer?

Well, look, what's been happening to the Uyghurs? What's been happening in so many places in China? Of course, he's an authoritarian. Of course, he's a dictator. He's ruling the country with an iron fist. I think that the summit was a big win for Xi in terms of the propaganda. You had American business leaders paying $40,000 to be able to sit with him at dinner. He got a rousing ovation from a lot of American CEOs. I know that's already being played in China as an example of China basically being America's equal on the world stage. I don't think Joe Biden got anything of note out of this. They talk about cooperating for fentanyl as if China doesn't know the fentanyl is being sent to Mexico and into the United States. Of course they know. This is part of their national strategy to hurt this country. I think it was a bust from Biden's perspective, and I think it was a win for Jay.

You also attacked Governor Nikki Haley this week over her response to the death of George Floyd. Take a listen.

She was tweeting that it needed to be personal and painful for every single person. I'm thinking to myself, Why does that need to be personal and painful for you or me? We had nothing to do with it.

The officer who knelt on George Floyd's back for almost 10 agonizing minutes, which we saw because that young girl filmed it, he was ultimately convicted of murder. I'm sure you saw the video. I guess what I think, Nikki Haley was-Yeah.

Look-that's fine, Jake, and he should be held accountable.

Let me just ask my question. I think what Governor Haley was going for, and I don't speak for her, but I think what she was going for is like watching the video is painful for Americans to see. Do you not think that empathy is an important quality for a US President?

Of course it is. Nobody's saying that, but to say that the actions of one police officer means that Americans in Iowa or Texas or Florida, that it should be painful for them when they had nothing to do with it, that does not make any sense. And so that individual was arrested. He went through a criminal process, but that is not emblematic of police officers in general, much less the American public in general. I would note that was said at the time when we started to see the unrest in this country, and you had massive riots that have destroyed cities like Minneapolis. It's going to take decades for Minneapolis to be able to recover. The response to that was totally out of bounds. We didn't let that happen in Florida. I called out the National Guard, but that rioting was an absolute disgrace, and it hurt this country.

Your campaign keeps a running list and keeps tweeting a running list of Donald Trump's fumbles and accidents and confused moments. That's what they call them, saying this is why his handlers won't let him debate, noting times that Trump has forgotten what state he's in, times that Trump has confused Obama and Biden, times he's confused Nikki Haley and Kristi Noem, and on and on. What exactly are you saying about Donald Trump's mental fitness? Do you think he's too old to be President?

I've said publicly, the presidency is not a job for an 80-year-old that Donald Trump would actually be older on January 20th, 2025, than Biden was on January 20th, 2021. But I think it's part of a larger issue that this is not the same guy as the Trump in 2015 and 16. That Trump would show up on the debate stage. He'd barnstorm. Yes, he was off color, he was edgy, but it was all part of an idea that he was really going to shake things up. Now he's wedded to the teleprompter, he's not willing to debate, and he's running on many of the same things he promised to do in 2016 and didn't deliver. For example, he said he was going to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it. Jake, he didn't build the wall and Mexico sure didn't pay for it because you would not have been able to have eight million people come in illegally if we had a fully constructed wall. He also said he would drain the swamp, and yet the swamp is more powerful than ever. He didn't do it the first time. I don't know what makes you think he's going to do it this time, but he should show up to debate, prove that he can sit on that stage for two hours, defend his record, defend his decisions, and tell people why he should be the choice going forward.

Because what I've made the point is simple. Donald Trump's a high risk proposition as a nominee because I think the chance of him getting elected is small, but it's a low reward because he's going to be a lame duck on day one. Even if he could get elected, he would not be able to attract the type of talent to work in his administration, and he'd be saddled with all these distractions that would be virtually impossible to get the job done.

But are you and your campaign saying that he has lost his sharpness, his mental acuity? And are you saying he'll lose to Joe Biden?

Well, I wouldn't be running it unless I thought that the Democrats would beat Trump if he were the nominee. They're going very easy on him right now. They're not saying much. The minute if he were to be the nominee, I mean, you're going to see scorched earth. You're going to see all the stuff brought up from the past, and the whole election will end up being a referendum on Donald Trump. And Biden will be able to hang out in the basement, and I think he'll be able to get away with it again. Look, when you get to this point, the presidency is not a job for somebody that's pushing 80 years old. I just think that that's something that has been shown with Joe Biden. Father time is undefeated. Donald Trump is not exempt from any of that. I think with somebody like me, you go in, I'm in the prime of my life. I go in day one, I'll serve two terms, deliver big results, and get the country moving again. That's what Republican voters want to see.

You also noted in an interview in Iowa that instead of focusing on his first day in office on building the wall, that Donald Trump was obsessed with crowd sizes at his inaugural. He was distracted with that. Why do you think he gets distracted with things like that? What is it about him that makes him get distracted with things like that, do you think?

I don't know, but if you go back to that, when he took office, we had just come off eight years of Obama. Republicans had a lot of pen up demand to see some change. He was the vehicle for that. He made some big promises. Then it just seemed like every little controversy would bubble up, and he would get distracted by going down those rabbit holes. I just think it's important that you focus on true north. Why are you there? Every single day, the narrative, the chatter is going to try to divert you off course. You just need to have focus and you need to have discipline that you're going to be able to get the job done and wade through all the choppy seas. Why he cared about the crowd size? I don't know, but I can tell you this, if I had been in his shoes, I would have declared the border to be a national emergency on day one, and I would have begun the mobilization to make sure that we secure it and build the wall. That did not happen under his administration, and now the situation is as worse as it's ever been.

All right, Governor Ron DeSantis in Iowa. Thanks so much. Appreciate your being here today.

Thank you.