(ReclaimingAmerica.net) – Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, has suggested moving some federal employees outside of Washington, DC, could be a good idea.
His comments sounded similar to the “drain the swamp” line of thinking of former President Donald Trump, whom DeSantis would face should he decide to run for president, Newsmax noted in a report.
Florida’s governor spoke in “a rare get-to-know-him interview” that he did with journalist Saleno Zito for The New York Post and The Washington Examiner.
“Too much power has accumulated in D.C., and the result is a detached administrative state that rules over us and imposes its will on us,” DeSantis told Zito.
“While there are a host of things that need to be done to re-constitutionalize government, parceling out federal agencies to other parts of the country could help reduce the negative effects of this accumulation of power,” the popular Republican governor elaborated.
The report pointed out that DeSantis seemed to “even echo” some of the Trump administration’s actions to move some federal agencies to the Midwest.
At the time, in 2019, Politico reported agency staffers were not happy with the idea because they were to be moved from the seat of “consolidated power.”
Ron DeSantis had not even suggested that he would run for president in 2024. However, his new interview contained some veiled hints.
“People basically say, ‘Well, yeah, you got to do it,’ so it’s funny, it’s interesting with the whole COVID stuff,” DeSantis said.
“As that was happening and we got into the fall, particularly after November ’22, people just started creating this [presidential campaign-style] merchandise,” he elaborated.
“I had nothing to do with any of it,” Florida’s governor claimed.
Later this month, DeSantis is publishing his COVID-19 pandemic response memoir, “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival.”
The report quotes sources as saying the Florida governor had already decided to run for president but would not announce his candidacy until May or possibly even until August.
DeSantis is expected to move much of his legislative agenda during the March-April session of the Florida legislature after the GOP won large majorities in both chambers.
Recent public opinion polls place DeSantis second after Trump regarding Republican voter support for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination.
The current RealClearPolitics polling average shows Trump at 45.6%, DeSantis at 30.2%, former Vice President Mike Pence at 6.4%, and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley at 4.6%.
DeSantis: "Too much power has accumulated in D.C. and the result is a detached administrative state that rules over us and imposes its will on us." https://t.co/V7EhzRZfNL
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) February 19, 2023
