(As originally published with bells and whistles, Wed, June 8th 2022, 10:59 PM EDT)
FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — In commenting about an inappropriate show in front of children in Texas, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he’s exploring new legislative ways to protect children.
The governor answered a question that could not be heard on the pool feed, but he began his response by alluding to action he has already taken: “I’ve asked my folks to look. We have child protective statutes on the books.”
Then, DeSantis referenced an incident in Dallas.
…’drag show’ where they were putting money in the underwear of–
“We have laws against child endangerment, and I think this came at you. We had this Dallas, Texas. We had these very young kids. They must have been like 9, 10 years old at a, quote (slows speech and raises his fingers to make quotation marks), ‘drag show,’ where they were putting money in the underwear of–. That is totally inappropriate. That is not something that children should be exposed to. And so, we probably, we may have the ability to deal with that if something like that happens. There’s also very graphic language in that thing. And people got a lot of video and a lot of stuff from it. And I think that was really, really disturbing. We want to have our kids be kids. They want to have normal environment. (applause) Part of the reason why we fought the fight with ‘Parents Rights in Education’ is because there’s a movement to inject these things like gender ideology.”
The governor — who is running for reelection in November and considered a possible presidential candidate in 2024 — went on to repeat his talking points about education and the controversies of the past few months.
But DeSantis wasn’t done.
We’re going to look to see what could be done under existing statutes…
“But when you see those images. You know, Texas isn’t exactly known to be San Francisco. I mean it’s a relatively conservative state, culturally, and to see that was not something– So we do have some, some– We’re going to look to see what could be done under existing statutes, but I do think targeting these kids with all this stuff. You know, it used to be kids would be off limits. It used to be, everyone agreed with that and now it just seems like there’s an effort to be exposing kids more and more to things that are not age appropriate. And I think our state of Florida, we need to be a family-friendly state. We need to be a good state for people to be able to raise a family, get a high-quality education, have a lot of opportunities without having some political agenda shoved down their throats,” he said to more applause.
The very next question asked was apparently about school security and the governor, who had just referred to “graphic language,” didn’t mince words when discussing anyone who might be a threat.
He started by referring back to something that could not be done.
Then, he touted the amount of money for school security in the state budget, saying “close to three-quarters of a billion dollars just since I’ve been governor.”
He referenced Parkland, “the failures of both law enforcement and the school system,” and “providing the resources necessary.”
If you’re one of those nutjobs…
DeSantis continued about schools, “These are not going to be good places to go. If you’re one of those nutjobs, just know. You try that, you’re going to end up on your ass and it’s not going to end up being pretty. And you’re not going to walk out of there alive,” he added, to more applause from his supporters.
The governor spoke in Fort Myers Beach before coming to West Palm Beach.
