DeSantis Rips Social Media Companies, Signs Bill Blocking Big Tech From Deplatforming Conservatives

hola it's great to be in uh miami at florida international university uh i want to thank president rosenberg i want to thank everybody here today we've got a great group of folks assembled here i've got a legislative all-star team behind me here we have senators uh manny diaz and ray rodriguez uh is ileana here senator ileana garcia great we have ileana we also have representatives in golia lupus fernandez barkin rizzo busata cabrera fabricio busch barrero and representative danny perez so i'm going to thank them for all their hard work this session not only on this bill that we'll sign today uh pleasure i think we we set the standard my first year and somehow exceeded the second and now we've even exceeded it this third year again and so when you look at law and order uh when you look at uh teacher bonuses when you look at school choice all these things we're able to do these guys really drove the train on that i'd also like to thank a few other folks who were here from today uh darielle fernandez cuban american where you at you're here okay alberto paroche venezuelan american is here [Applause] felix rodriguez cuban american icon where's felix okay thank you [Applause] carlos diaz rocio um and also james o'keefe from project veritas [Applause] we're here today to uh signing law legislation that we work very hard on these legislators work very hard on and really florida is the trailblazer yet again on another issue that's really important to not just millions of floridians but really tens of millions of americans when the founding fathers establish our country uh and crafted the constitution they were very concerned with threats to liberty primarily emanating from government power and and they believe concentrations of power uh inevitably would lead to people's liberties being curtailed so they designed a constitution that had separation of powers checks and balances and it was designed to create a government that could do the things that you needed a government to do but did it in a way that was as safe as possible and had as many different checks along the way and balances so that you didn't have an accumulation of power in one part of the government and i think that they were very smart about that and obviously we've seen other societies that have not had those protections the results have inevitably been disastrous we are now though in a situation where we have things that i think were probably unforeseen by the founding fathers um whereas they established the first amendment to protect people's freedom of speech religion and association from government overreach uh we now have a situation in which some of these massive massive companies uh in silicon valley are exerting a power over our population uh that really has no precedent in american history and i would suggest the monopolies today these big tech monopolies are exerting way more influence over our society than the monopolies of the early earliest 20th century which led to anti-trust and a lot of trust busting and so we're in a situation here where these platforms have become our public square uh floridians and other americans go on these platforms to be able to share ideas heck you go back to the beginning of these platforms they actually were very liberating because you had corporate media those legacy outlets that many americans grew to distrust and rightfully so they no longer had the monopoly on information you could actually go around the legacy media share information on these platforms uh and that was very very positive for millions and millions of americans and actually it was a little too positive and the powers of b didn't like that and so i think what we've seen in recent years is a shift away from internet platform social media platforms from really being liberating forces to now being enforcers of orthodoxy and so their primary mission or one of their major missions seems to be suppressing ideas that are either inconvenient to the narrative or that which they uh personally disagree with and you think about some of the things that are in the news just most recently the of the last however many decades you know some of the major issues that we've had to deal with i would say two of the major issues when people look back on this period will be the efficacy of coronavirus lockdowns and the origin of the coronavirus in wuhan china now we have information that this very well may have emanated from the wuhan lab that it was a it was a leak from the lab but you remember when people last year were raising that as something that needed to be investigated they were de-platformed for talking about uh the lab leak they were censored for having said that and now even fauci admits that this may be something that very well is the case are they going to now censor fauci and pull him down off social media so this shows you um because corporate media said it was a conspiracy theory at the outset um these big tech oligarchs responded to that pulled down instead of having an honest debate about something that's very very important clearly it's going to affect our relationship with china if this was something that leaked from a lab and they immediately covered it up we know they did cover up regardless but certainly from that very beginning it's a crucial crucial thing for the american people to know big tech they wanted to to shut down debate over that you also go back to march april of 2020 anyone posting criticisms of lockdowns those things were taken down they were censored but now we stand here and look at florida you know we're open and people flock here because they understand it's better to live in freedom the places that locked down and followed those policies that were basically advocated by silicon valley you know they've had a lot of problems high unemployment high crime higher per capita coveted mortality the list goes on and on so these are major major issues and i would say those lockdowns have ruined millions of people's lives all around this country wouldn't it have been good to have a full debate on that um in our public square but that was not what what silicon valley wanted to do so this is a big problem and we wouldn't need to get into the election interference that we see from silicon valley on major issues that deserve robust debate silicon valley is acting as a council of censors they cancel people when mobs come after somebody they will pull them down they shadow ban people which creates partisan echo chambers and honestly they are some of the major reasons why this country is divided for for doing what they're doing and the worst part about this silicon valley thinks they know better than you so their power up to this point has effectively been unchecked um and they have used this power in silicon valley to impose their orthodoxies and their ideologies on our public square this is not how a free society should operate they use secret algorithms and shadow banning to shape debates and control the flow of information but yet they evade accountability by claiming they're just neutral platforms even as they amplify partisan agendas and censor descent so every day they act uh as the proverbial big brother in 2021 looks an awful lot like the fictitious 1984. so it's time to step up and ensure that we the people especially our everyday floridians are guaranteed protection against the silicon valley power grab with the reform we will sign in today will be the first state to hold big tech accountable so that everyday people who use their platform [Applause] and the protection should not simply be uh something that is reserved for celebrities or for political office holders it needs to apply to every day floridians and what this reform does is recognize that social media platforms are as important for conveying public opinions they're effectively a common carrier in everyday society and they really need to be viewed that way they also hold a unique place in preserving free speech for all floridians and these platforms can harm floridians when they unfairly censor ban and de-platform them so this reform gives every floridian the power to fight back against big tech floridians who are d platform will be able to sue big tech companies for violating this law [Applause] and courts may award up to 100 000 in damages for each proven claim these protections aren't just for elite but for everyday people millions of people who rely on social media to keep up with the news do business and stay connected with family and friends we're the first state to hold these big tech companies to this standard of transparency and accountability the law requires the platforms to publish detailed standards explaining how they decide which voices to censor and they need to apply those standards consistently that's not what happens you look they have these standards always change it and if you're on one side seems to be any little foot foul you're gone if you're on the right side from their perspective then you know you can get away with whatever you want and so when big tech sensors enforce their rules inconsistently to discriminate in favor of the dominant ideology in silicon valley they will be held accountable in the state of florida and all floridians treated unfairly by big tech platforms will have the right to sue companies to violate uh this law and win damages the reform safeguards the rights of every floridian by requiring social media companies to be transparent about their content moderation practices and give users proper notice of changes to those policies i mean there's some people that get the platform they even know what they're getting the platform for that prevents big tech bureaucrats from quote moving the goal post to censor viewpoints they don't like but it's not just individuals the attorney general under this law of florida can bring action against tech companies that violate this law under florida's deceptive and unfair trade practices act if social media platforms are found to have violated anti-trust law they will be restricted from contracting with any public entity that anti-trust violator black list imposes real consequences for big tech and for their bottom line the law also prohibits big tech from de-platforming political candidates for elected office in the state of florida the florida election commission will post fines of 250 000 per day on social media companies that the platforms any candidate for statewide office and additional penalties lesser for local offices any floridian can block any candidate they don't want to hear from and that is a right to belong each citizen you simply can avert your eyes or not subscribe to what they're doing but it's not for big tech to be weighing in on these elections and picking the candidates that have the right to speak and those that should be silenced they're not [Applause] now if there's an old saying i think it was bill bucky that said he would rather be governed by the first two 2000 names in the boston phone book than the harvard faculty well i would say if i had to pick one group of people to not be governed by it would be the bureaucrats and oligarchs in silicon valley they are not the arbiters of truth uh they are not accountable uh to the electorate um and what we're doing now is informing is reform empowering floridians to hold these companies accountable and to give protections for people in terms of their daily lives and if you think about some of the things that we have seen when you had the the parlor company get taken down that was like one fell swoop from a bunch of different companies acting basically in concert they took them off web hosting they took their payment processing they took all this stuff down so just think about it you run a small business and you have all these different things that that impact how you do it you advertise online you have a payment processor you have an email distribution list all these things and what if someone in silicon valley doesn't like you then they can work together and just wipe you off you know that's people's livelihoods that are at stake those are people's businesses and ultimately people's jobs that are at stake and so i think the implications are are profound and i think the protections we are providing today against big tech censorship will make a difference and not only that we're already seeing other states are now starting to follow suit and so it's not it starts in florida but it's not going to end in florida and i think we're going to have a huge movement behind us so i want to thank the legislature i want to thank a lot of floridians who have spoken out in favor of making sure that individual floridians are protected uh that we're protected against censorship that people have the ability to weigh in on these important issues and what has now become a digital public square i'm going to let some of the legislatures come up legislators who were involved in the bill we'll also hear from some of our our other speakers um and then we'll we'll move on and and i'll put the old john hancock on the bill and it will become the law of this state so first i want to bring up our senate uh maine senate sponsor uh from southwest florida senator ray rodriguez good morning the governor shared that we're the first state to pass this legislation and hold big tech accountable what he didn't share with you is we weren't the first state to introduce this legislation this legislation has been introduced in multiple states and big tech has put their lobbyists to work and they've killed it in every other state but one that state passed the bill then went to the governor and big tech put the pressure on the governor and the governor vetoed the bill but not in florida not today we have a governor that has shown the will to fight when the cause is freedom and for that florida is blessed thank you governor thank you and i'll just say there's two things to take away from this bill that i hope you leave with the first is this in florida if these big tech monopolies want to do business then they're going to treat floridians fairly and the second is this when it comes to freedom of speech in this state we will defend freedom of speech against digital book burners regardless of how big they are or how powerful they are because speech is fundamental to our freedom thank you our main house sponsor from hernando county on the other coast of florida blaze angolia first i want to thank governor desantis for his leadership on this but not just this issue multiple issues you know when you look at the things that we're doing in the state of florida florida's leading whether it comes on whether it's taking on big tech resiliency uh parental or school choice uh deregulating for businesses and just protecting every day's everyday floridians lives this legislature and this governor is leading where other governors are shying away from these big obstacles so governor thank you for everything that you do [Applause] regarding the bill i along with the legislators behind me and this great governor do not think that a handful of kids behind some desks in silicon valley get to be the arbiter of what free speech is and make no mistake about it this is a consumer protection bill our floridians are being hurt by these big tech oligarchs these companies are huge huge monopolies and it is about time that somebody took them on head on thank you governor for your leadership on this issue next we have dario fernandez hi hello everybody first i want to say thank you god for this opportunity thank you god because we have one of the best governor in the united states yes today is a special day it's important day no just for the stay of florida it's important day for the united states of america i remember 20 years ago when i came from cuba i came from my country tried to find liberty freedom of speech today the big tech wanted to have more power to the supreme court of the united states and we cannot allow that happening here in this country i think today everybody in the united states see florida as a new way to go and this is important for all americans when you see a company that took your data doing everything what they want if you say i believe in god sometimes they say they close your channel when you say something that is really important for the community they cross your channel and they don't want to you say the reality what is happening right now in the united states that is why this is important not just for florida for all the united states of america we need government like ron de santis that push this kind of law we need elected officials that help the community and the community have an important role in this because they are the one that can help to pass what is happening right now thank you so much god bless you next we have alberto paroche [Applause] ladies and gentlemen good morning my name is not important i'm just messenger and the message is what it leads and that's what i like you to go home with i was born in venezuela why is that important because i come from the future i come to warn you about do not flirt with disaster more than 20 years ago forever venezuela was number one country in latin america sorry if there is other people from latin american countries and i know there are or it sounds kind of like but believe me a country where you eat a mango and throw the seed there and three days later there is a tree there believe me if you have long fingers put it in the ground and there'll be a gazer of oil you understand we found little peck we had pede vesa we watched one hell of a company we had citgo who was one hell of a gas station now i'm gonna pump a pen in there you understand and i came here thinking this is a free country i always admire the united states my son is american and lately a few years ago i became one i swore to defend this country i'm not in my rounds i'm vara venezuelan american republican alliance and in a way in a way we are not only venezuelans we started with venezuelans we got nicaraguans colombians mexicans we got people from guatemala okay we got people really worried cubans really worry about about what is going on okay and please big tech may have a lot of money they can buy countries entire countries and sometimes i get my friends i have friends who are democrats sorry yes but i'm fighting and we're having a barbecue it's like come on there to the people from back big big these big companies they're americans no they're not you know what it established is the love that you have for this country and it's what you do for this country okay and one of the last democrats who are really common sense was john f kennedy he says ask what you can do for your country you know what your country can do with you all right for you so right now is the moment of doing 2022 is coming up i don't want to sound so electoral but please please put your battery on i want to tell you venezuela had beaches climate i mean we we were all i come from an italian family italy used to be soccer champion we don't even qualify after 25 years of socialist okay so you know we were about the g4 right right now we're maybe maybe 20th and and greek is greece is passing us so we're not even qualified for the world cup okay so that's one just to tell you and i come from an italian family i'm the only one born in venezuela and i lived there as i was director of the young executive of venezuela what was it capitalist do your enterprise don't wait for the for the government to give you anything place the write history yourself all right have generosity towards yourself be strong and help the other ones just don't be there asking for help don't victimize yourself the government has got to give you an environment of security thank god we have a government who's the governor who's doing it all right big chested and he's putting his chest into this and that makes me happy today because it's been many days that are not that happy right we mix in venezuela races i tell you some similarities and this is important this is important they packed the courts chavez packed the courts all right why because they changed the constitution right and the god given give of speech which he separates from animals that don't speak all right the constitution is that it free speech is the pillar of any society around the world not only here all right and it's guaranteed by our constitution defended because there is not one place in history any country that has changed its constitution that has something or a nice story to tell so it's placed on as a first amendment not as a fourth fifth twenty-fifth is placed as first because it's the most important and i don't want to touch the subject but then the second amendment is is to make sure that the first one stays and the second amendment people it is not to take a gun and go to walmart and shoot people the second or main man is making sure that the government doesn't come and knock at your house take your kids and tells your kids in school that the che guevara was a freedom fighter you understand you put your life saving half a million dollars into harvard school we have an alumni here okay and at that time probably they didn't teach that but listen listen and your story comes out with a t-shirt saying with a penny offers a gucci and an iphone of a thousand dollars you know you don't know anything about history che guevara was a freedom fighter what do i burn the school who do i talk to what is the dean of the school what am i paying for to have this guy in my house all right so people this is the moment we gotta think please go out the truth will free you okay and i've been i'm known in my rounds at zero silence i don't plan to stay quiet i'm gonna make it short certainly i know you're busy but but do not stay quiet whoever stays quiet because of fear is an accomplice to what is about to be here you understand what i'm saying please speak this is a moment [Applause] okay felix can you uh come up here and top that for us corner it's a pleasure to be here today to me you are the best governor in the united states of america [Applause] i came to this country when i was 13 years old in 1954. i came to school here graduating perkins prep in pennsylvania in 1960. i was accepted at the university of miami for engineering but i decided i had to do something about what's going on in my home hometown so i joined the way of pig invasion and then i continued to work with the cia for many years in three different continents what i am seeing today is very worsen to all of us we lost our country one time i don't want to lose my country the second time it is impossible to be able to maintain a democracy when you have people that are going to veto your voice like these high-tech people in the media fortunately for the first time in a long time we have a gardener that is putting a stop to that and it is very important to do that because they have like they could do anything they want and they are vetoing our right to speak and they have the same type of technology that the national security i used to have when a few words pop up in their computers they go and see who you are talking about that they don't like and they showed you up and they should not do that so we have proved a hundred percent we are very proud to be here and support uh governor desantis one thing i want to tell you before i leave in 19 the 2022 elections proud is going to be the most important election in the life of the united states of america if we don't win back the senate and the house we are going to lose the united states of america as we know it today there's no question about in my mind and you know what may 31st i'll be 80 years old i have no place to go globe as you god bless the united states of america [Applause] thank you felix carlos are you here where are you thank you mr governor how do you top that wow uh if you would allow me let me do three things number one give you a few thank yous uh number two tell you about this new center the adam smith center and number three give you some personal observations about this historic bill so first thank you mr governor thank you for being here thank you for your support of the center and thank you for implementing policies that are at the envy of the nation so thank you thank you to the lieutenant governor for your leadership and to the centers and representatives here and let me think about two of them who were truly instrumental in getting this center off the ground senators rodriguez and diaz right behind me thank you for all the support and one more thank you thank you to the leadership of fiu the president the provost the vice president um for welcoming the center with such open arms and for welcoming me personally uh with such warmth and enthusiasm because we are fau's newest center let me tell you just a word about who we are and who we aspire to be working at the intersection of government policy and the free market the adam smith center for economic freedom hopes to become a world-class independent nonpartisan think tank right here in the heart of miami to inform to influence and to inspire current and future leaders to develop and implement innovative meaningful and effective public policies to advance individual freedom and human prosperity established by our own legislature and governor less than a year ago the center will harness the power of research to offer a better understanding of our capitalist system and its impact on economic growth both at home and abroad through our activities and programs we hope to inspire policy discussions analysis and decision making we are steadfast in our commitment to objectivity and nonpartisanship which means that we will promote ideas and discussions that are relevant to both sides of the political aisle with meaningful and honest representation from both republicans and democrats from both academics and practitioners as a university we strongly believe in the principles of free expression and the respectful exchange of different ideas and viewpoints even when those ideas and viewpoints are difficult to hear but even though we're steadfast in that commitment to political impartiality and freedom of expression we're unabashedly supportive of democracy and the free enterprise system as the most effective ways to promote individual freedom and human prosperity i know very well that these systems are not perfect as winston churchill once said when speaking about democracy it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the other forms that have been tried from time to time and with speaking of capitalism he said the inherent vice of capitalism is an unequal sharing of blessings the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries we know that there's other political systems political and economic systems out there that have proven time and again to oppress people and to lead to economic misery the world over including right here in our hemisphere but while the proponents of those ideologies thrive on censorship and canceling other people when their opinions are different from their own we on the other hand look forward to engaging in a serious and civil debate with them as a center we will be laser focused on empirically and rigorously studying different varieties of capitalism and promoting a more responsible and thoughtful free enterprise system in florida in the united states and around the world that is why we feel it's so important for organizations to be committed to the principles of fairness and impartiality especially when they're responsible for hosting and disseminating different forms of expression and that is why it becomes necessary at times for there to be meaningful laws that regulate the behavior of actors that break uh with those important principles and as we know that is exactly what has been happening with big tech listen i believe that in general less regulation is always better than more regulation period but when big powerful players that act in effect as monopolies are not following the rules of the game we need referees to bring order to the game and in my opinion my humble opinion that is exactly what this bill does it levels the playing field for all floridians so they can be treated fairly and it brings transparency and accountability to the process so that if a social media organization wants to remove somebody someone from their platform the process can be transparent social media organizations are simply being asked to publish a set of standards objective standards which by the way they get to set themselves for determining how to de-platform users and of course apply those standards without prejudice the message here in my opinion is a clear one big tech like any other business needs to follow the rules in an unbiased manner it's that simple and that is why this big is so important and that is why it's so historic we might not realize it now who knows you know who probably does realize it people in countries like cuba like venezuela like iran north korea like china uh because people in those countries know very well what it's like to be censored by big powerful players who cannot tolerate dissenting opinions so thank you mr governor thank you for standing up against those who may want to censor floridians thank you for standing up against potentially unfair and arbitrary censorship and for promoting free speech throughout our great state listen people can agree or disagree on the substance or even the details of a bill that is normal in fact that is healthy but we should always stand up together to protect freedom of expression and we need to be concerned about censorship of any type mr governor as you know so well taking on a player as big and as powerful as big tech is not easy it takes courage therefore we know that there's always going to be controversy around it and that is what we would like to serve here at the center as a neutral place where people with different perspectives can come in and debate the merits and the liabilities of this bill or any bill present their opinions defend them with evidence with data with solid arguments and yes with passion and that is how we can make progress not by supporting or opposing something for the sake of it but by going through the arguments and defending them rigorously and transparently so mr governor would like to offer that platform to you and to anyone who wants to engage in a serious debate about the issue so we can collectively promote individual freedom and advance human prosperity in a society where different people can work together for the common good even when or i should say especially when they disagree with one another thank you thank you good morning it's great to be here my alma mater always proud to be here i want to thank everyone that's here behind me all of our legislative leaders that work so hard along with our governor and the reason that florida is leading today and not just today is because we have a great governor in ron desantis [Applause] he has demonstrated such courage on taking on big tech because i think everyone here in this room understands how difficult it is and you heard that when senator rodriguez mentioned how we have not seen one other state lead like our state has under this governor so i'm proud to be a part of this administration and we heard from our past an icon like felix who not only has been so important for our community our state and our country and what he has done for this country and i thank you felix we also heard from the future my good friends over there my venezuelan friends and i think the words that he shared the warnings that he shared should really shake us to our core but today we're going to hear from the president when our governor signs this bill and puts us on a path to protecting everyday floridians and making sure that we will not be censored we will not be silenced and the ugliness that we've seen in so many of our community that have fled communism tyranny and oppression that those ugly demons won't rear their head here in florida and thank you again for being here and thank you governor desantis for taking this issue on well thanks everybody i think this was great remarks across the board and at the end of the day today what we're doing we are protecting floridians ability to speak and express their opinions this will lead to more speech not less speech because speech that's inconvenient to the narrative will be protected uh where it doesn't have those protections uh going on now and you know we think when i heard felix come up you know we tend to think of threats to liberty in the in the guise of a of a bearded tyrant with military fatigues and as we know that that is absolutely the case and we see the legacy of that uh uh tyranny in places like cuba and venezuela but we also have to understand when there's uh great power lodged in other institutions uh that that has an impact it could potentially abridge people's freedoms and so uh today maybe this isn't as much the bearded tired in the military fatigues you know maybe the person is um on in pajamas on their laptop drinking a soy latte in silicon valley but you know what when they have the power to be able to silence you you take it seriously and so that's what we're doing here today i think we will have more robust debate in the state of florida as a result of the legislation that we're signing today and i can tell you this if you believe in the power of of your own ideas you should welcome robust debate you should want there to be people that you can show why what you stand for is correct when they try to silence silence criticism of lockdown silence people raising questions about the origin of the virus silencing stories that are inconvenient for their preferred candidates when they do that you know that shows you that they don't have confidence that their side will ultimately prevail because ultimately the truth will set you free and so that's what we're doing here in the state of florida protecting everyday floridians and ensuring that we have more speech not less speech and with that we'll make it official [Applause] [Music] and i do think so today is the 23rd i know [Applause] [Music] all right [Applause] and i think uh obviously it's i think it's a monumental day it took a lot of work in the legislature i know that um you know we're really leading the way on this we're proud of that uh it's also a good time to reflect on a lot of the achievements that we were able to come up with in this last legislative session you go back a year everyone was predicting catastrophe for florida's budget and economy and in fact we have robust reserve budget reserves uh in in our state budget actually more than probably even before covet started if you look what we were able to do meeting our key priorities not only did we continue with my momentum on everglades and water resources we actually did more than what we even forecast because of the underlying strength of florida's economy we were able to support our k-12 system we did a thousand dollar bonuses for all principals and teachers which we'll be uh rolling out in the next couple days uh we also were able to double down on my uh one of the things we did last year which kind of got lost in the pandemic you know we took last year the average minimum salary for school teachers in florida we were in the bottom half of states we brought us to the top five in average minimum salary we did that again and actually added more to improve again going forward of course i was in miami a couple weeks ago signing the biggest school choice expansion uh certainly in the country this year and maybe in decades we also sign the strongest anti-rioting pro-law enforcement legislation anywhere in the country we are not going to let any local government defund law enforcement we will hold you accountable if you're violent and we're going to let everyone that wears that uniform to protect and serve us that we stand with you and not only are we not defunding the police we're funding them and then some we secured thousand dollar bonuses for all first responders and law enforcement in the state of florida we signed a strong um transparent election uh integrity package which bans ballot harvesting in the state of florida and van zuckerbuck so we're here talking about big tech they poured hundreds of millions of dollars into these groups that effectively ran elections in certain parts of the country that's unacceptable and with my signature on that bill a couple weeks ago that is illegal in the state of florida we're not going to let special interests run our elections and we've got a lot more stuff that's coming down the pike so uh all i can say is um you know we believe that we have probably unprecedented momentum in terms of uh what's gone on with the economy in florida i mean people uh have the ability right to work right to operate businesses they're expanding fact they could they need more employees i mean that's really the main thing at this point people's home values uh are going up so so we're proud of of what we've been able to accomplish um you know we are effectively america's west berlin over the last year and uh people have viewed this as as a as a free zone where not only they they move to to follow their dreams but even if it's just uh visiting uh for a time to escape some of the more repressive policies and that even includes people that impose repressive policies will still come down to florida and actually have a little thing so it's all good javier questions governor um you've been pretty critical of critical race theory can you give us an update on what you're doing with some of these local school boards including brow which now pushing national islam malcolm x so the issue with um critical race theory one we're going to be bringing that in front of the state board of education we're not putting any tax dollars uh to allow critical race theory understand there's a movement now in some of the elite corporate outlets to gaslight people about what critical race theory is i saw one thing saying texas has a bill they don't want uh people to learn about slavery so that's nonsense you teach the facts you teach everything that's happened but what critical race theory is is basically race essentialism it teaches people to view that as the most important characteristic and obviously if you're certain races caucasian whatnot they view that in a negative fashion that is not something that's appropriate for schools it's based on historical falsehoods for example some of these folks have tried to say the american revolution was fought because they wanted to preserve slavery really in lexington and concord is that what they were fighting about i mean just open up a history book read the pamphlets read what they were doing at the time and so um so yeah it doesn't have a place the board of education is going to act i think and i think it's coming up in like a week or two but ultimately look it's going to be up to the legislature and me if you continue to have some of this some of this movement in spite of the state policy i mean it really should have funding um consequences uh that flow from it look have we done so well on the basics that we go off into these political and ideological tangents in our schools they're not supposed to be indoctrinating kids with fetish ideologies they're supposed to be teaching the basic [Applause] that you're stopping we're stopping the additional federal pandemic assistance uh additional ministry yeah so the deo put out the notice that so we reinstituted the job search requirements and now discontinuing the added federal money and the re reason is simple we got almost a half a million job openings in the state of florida and so you know a year ago i mean i remember when like i got news disney was going to close like no one thought that was even possible you started to see uh tourism dry up and all these different things there were people that that had no ability so we suspended a lot of the job search and all that stuff we tried to get money out the door particularly the federal money that we were able to get and that was appropriate now we're just in a much different situation uh no matter where i go in the state of florida people will tell me hey we love florida's great thanks for what you're doing governor we just need to find more people to want to work so the jobs are there uh we're proud of the fact that we've got a lot of economic momentum and so now we're transitioning from kind of um you know relief in the midst of a crisis to now having the more traditional re-employment outlook you know that this is something that's a stop gap for people until they can get back on their feet and get back to work but i'm confident with almost a half a million job openings uh that people are going to be able uh to to get a job and get back to work and um you know most floridians to their credit um you know have worked really hard throughout the entire course of the year uh there are folks and i actually meet some of them who even though some of the benefits are pretty significant they just decided you know what i love my job you know i want to be doing it or whatever but i think this aligns the incentives better and i think it'll really help particularly a lot of our mom and pops you know we have restaurants that are thriving most places the restaurant industry got totally decimated here it's doing much better but they'll have to close for a day or two just because they don't have enough staff to be able to do it yes ma'am governor hi i want to ask you about the bill that you're signing here today um uh you're a loyal supporter of former president donald trump uh donald trump is now a resident in florida and he was the platform is this bill for him the bill is for everyday floridians is what we said um and it allow any floridian to be able to um to provide uh what what they're doing so um but i think i mean i do think that's another issue that that has been brought to bear when you de-platform the president united states but you let ayatollah khomeini talk about killing jews that is wrong [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right thank you guys god bless everybody

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

Views: 3,074,637

Keywords: Gov. Ron DeSantis, social media, bill

Id: 96yb4MRJ0Xs

Length: 50min 20sec (3020 seconds)

Published: Fri May 28 2021