'On day one we'll be spitting nails': DeSantis rages against deep state and pledges to dismantle it in Glenn Beck interview

Tech issues dogged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential announcement Wednesday, prompting his biggest Republican primary opponent and critics on the left to suggest the troubled medium was the message.

Unfazed, the Republican governor spoke to nationally syndicated radio host and co-founder of Blaze Media Glenn Beck Thursday morning, elaborating on his vision for America — a vision leftists would likely prefer to see disrupted by more than glitches.

DeSantis told Beck that there was little to be done in Tallahassee about the Twitter-side technical difficulties resultant of a surge in interest, but that there is much to be done in Washington, and as president, he wouldn't waste a moment.

"On day one we'll be spitting nails," said DeSantis, underscoring that his aim as president would be not repair but reformation.

This reformation, which DeSantis termed a re-constitutionalization of the U.S. government, entails reclaiming power from the ill-equipped and the unelected.

With the understanding that bureaucrats in Washington "do not want to give up this power willingly," DeSantis said it is important to get the personnel right.

"You can't just recycle everybody from D.C.," said DeSantis. "It's not going to change if that's the case."

Rather than sourcing talent from the majoritively Democratic capital, the Florida Republican indicated that he will bring in patriots from around the country who can unsettle the status quo.

DeSantis indicated that on his first day in office, he would clean house, naming a new FBI director and an "attorney general that has a backbone — an attorney general that recognizes if you are doing your job properly, you are going to be pilloried by the Washington Post and the New York Times and CNN."

Extra to ensuring the right people are in the right jobs, the governor indicated he will wield Article 2 authority to its fullest extent, albeit in a disciplined and strategic manner, as a means to deconstruct the administrative state and take on the antipathetic and obstructionist forces in the FBI, the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, the CIA, and other agencies.

"We have these agencies that have been detached from constitutional accountability. There was never supposed to be a fourth branch of government, but Congress has not held them accountable with the power of the purse or with legislating more precisely," said DeSantis. "Presidents have not been willing to wield Article 2 power to discipline the bureaucracy."

DeSantis told Beck that as a consequence of the impotence and deference of past leaders, it is presently unclear whether "we govern ourselves ... because right now, the most significant issues tend not to be resolved by our elected representatives. They're done by these bureaucrats and through these agencies. And so it's really, I think, a crisis of self-government."

By curbing and reversing this consolidation of power among technocratic forces who "all have the same worldview," DeSantis indicated that the power can be returned to the people.

While restoring to Americans what is theirs by birthright, DeSantis suggested he would also ensure the government and woke capital get out of their way.

"We need to have the Federal Reserve focus on stable money and stop trying to be the economic central planner," he said.

The governor indicated that he would also continue the work he has committed to in Florida, combating woke businesses whose ideological agenda makes it "harder for the average American family to make ends meet."

Having likened the historical import of DeSantis' direct appeal to prospective voters on Wednesday night to former President Bill Clinton's then-impactful MTV town hall debate or his appearance on "The Arsenio Hall Show," Beck pressed the Republican candidate on whether his announcement signaled "the end of the mainstream media" and a new trend of going straight to the people.

In reply, DeSantis lauded Elon Musk's opening of Twitter and its potential for going around the legacy media, but noted that there is still much to do "to make sure that the First Amendment actually means something," referencing the continuing efforts of Silicon Valley leftists and federal agencies to clamp down on free speech online.

As a means of bypassing the establishment media and various other gatekeepers, Beck proposed a Blaze TV-hosted presidential debate or roundtable, free from "gotcha questions" and committed to probing topics that actually matter to voters.

"I'd love to be a part of it," responded DeSantis, adding that he'd like to see the RNC sanction it.

DeSantis, whose campaign claimed to have brought in over $1 million in donations in less than an hour Wednesday evening, stands tall above the rest of the Republican field with the exception of former President Donald Trump, whom the governor trails in the polls by double digits.

The latest Emerson College Iowa Republican presidential caucus poll has Trump up 42 points, with DeSantis at 20. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence are tied for a distant third at five points in the poll.

CNN's May 24 poll put Trump up by 27 points. The May 19 Harvard-Harris poll suggested an even greater spread, with Trump sitting at 58 and DeSantis at 16.

While entering the GOP primary as an apparent underdog, DeSantis nevertheless has momentum, having built up speed killing woke initiatives in Florida and simultaneously illustrating some of what he could offer the rest of the nation.

In his second term as Florida governor, the 44-year-old former Navy JAG officer has already made significant strides in combating the leftist agenda, such as his ratification of a six-week abortion ban, a permitless concealed carry bill, and a law barring public universities from using state funds for DEI initiatives. Prior to his re-election and swearing-in on Glenn Beck's Bible of the Revolution, DeSantis also reopened Florida while much of the nation idled under COVID restrictions and passed legislation that ensured LGBT propaganda could not be disseminated in the classroom.

At the outset of his campaign, the Quinnipiac University Poll has DeSantis leading President Joe Biden by one. In the same poll, Trump trails Biden by two.

Despite the comparisons that have and will continue to be drawn between DeSantis and Trump, he recently emphasized in a recent interview with Piers Morgan, "If I were to run, I'm running against Biden."

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