Florida Governor Ron DeSantis doesn’t spend much time in Florida these days. He’s busy flying around the country running for President and stopping by Fox News to talk to Kayleigh McEnany.

Let’s look at the transcript and see what “tough” questions were asked.

Here’s a hint, not a single one; also no follow-ups whatsoever.

MCENANY:  It's good to have you.

You have won the right on these issues. The left, they're going to call these culture wars. But what do you say to the independent right there in the middle who wants to know why these issues should matter?

DESANTIS:  Well, Kayleigh, when they're trying to inject matters of gender ideology into a kindergarten or first grade classroom, just understand, that is a culture war, but that's a culture war being waged by the left against parents and kids.

All we're doing in Florida is having the temerity to fight back, to protect the integrity of the education for our kids, to protect parents' rights, to be able to send their kid to school and have the school focus on the basics, and not teach a young kid that they can change their gender, that they were born in the wrong body.

And this whole notion of a so-called book ban is a hoax. As you mentioned, in the state of Florida, people can buy whatever book they want. They can read whatever book they want. But schools, by definition, have to choose what is in the classroom or library or not. You may have one book on George Washington. There's 100 other books you could have. That doesn't mean you're banning the other 100. You're making a choice to and choose that.

So, we have empowered parents with curriculum transparency in Florida. When they find pornography in the schools, they're allowed to blow the whistle. And if, in fact, it conflicts with our standards, then it can be removed. That's going to lead to a better education system, a better outcome.

And, as you said, individual parents can make different decisions, but we should not subject all of our kids to the left's ideological agenda.

MCENANY:  So, out in the state of California, you have a chief executive there. His name is Gavin Newsom, and he has a bit of an obsession with you. Let's roll the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA):  In 2021, California had 7.8 percent of GDP growth in this country, one of the fastest growing economies anywhere on planet Earth.

This state continues to be the tentpole of the American economy; 25.6 percent of all American jobs came from this state in April. In the last two fiscal years, we enjoyed $177.7 billion in operating surpluses.

We're on our way to be the fourth largest economy -- eat your heart out, Germany -- in the world, number one in R&D, venture capital, more scientists, researchers, more Nobel laureates, more patents emanating out of this state than any other state in America.

With all due respect, Florida doesn't even come close. Eat your heart out, Texas. California continues to be the dominant economic engine for the American...

(CROSSTALK)

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR:  I appreciate -- I promised you...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCENANY:  So, he says Florida doesn't come close. What's your response there?

DESANTIS:  Well, I'd say two things.

One, we're number one in new business formations. Even though we're only 60 percent of the size of California, we have new -- more business formations here. We have way less tax, way less debt. We have one of the lowest tax and debt burdens in the entire country.

We have led amongst all big states since COVID in economic growth. Our unemployment rate is 2.6 percent. California's is over 4 percent. And here's the proof in the pudding, Kayleigh. For decades in this country, people have beaten a path to California. It's a beautiful state, great topography, all kinds of diversity in terms of the different communities you can live in.

And yet they never lost population until their current governor took office. Now they're hemorrhaging wealth. Now they're hemorrhaging population, because you see things like what I saw the other day in San Francisco. I saw people defecating on the sidewalk. I saw people in an open-air drug market using fentanyl. I saw them using crack cocaine.

And I had -- quite frankly, I'm walking the streets. I had some of the left-wing San Francisco people say some nasty things to me. But you know what I had, Kayleigh? I had the police officers come over and shake my hand and thank me for what we're doing in Florida, because that they have a commitment to law and order in the state of California and in San Francisco.

So, we can cite all the statistics. People vote with their feet. And if someone picks up and moves 2,500 miles across the country from California to Florida, that's a major statement. And I grew up in Florida. I never saw California license plates until the last four years.

(FTVLive Note: I can tell you that I’m on the roads of Florida every day, and by far, the most out-of-state plate I see is Texas. It’s by a huge margin too.

I can also claim that I am in Florida every day, DeSantis is not)

MCENANY:  Yes, I'm a Floridian. I see a lot of them, I must say.

You mentioned COVID there. And I have this very distinct memory. I was in the Oval Office with Dr. Anthony Fauci, in the Situation Room with him. I mean, this man made you think, like, your days were numbered, all of our days were numbered, all 323 million of us.

But then I go to Florida. I met you on a tarmac, and you were saying some pretty bullish things about opening the state. I was a bit taken aback, because it was such a contrast to kind of the groupthink I was hearing there in Washington.

But you earned the ire of the left on your COVID response. Now you're getting attacked from the right. There are a variety of responses to COVID. Why was yours the right one?

DESANTIS:  Well, we made a decision to buck Fauci, buck the medical establishment, buck the media, the left, and some Republicans, and say, you know what, people in Florida have a right to work. The businesses have a right to be open. Kids have a right to be in school, and we're not going to impose mask mandates or the like or vaccine mandates.

And the minute we did that, we became the focal point for freedom in this country. If you had been in, like, the Florida Panhandle in May, June of 2020, it was like COVID didn't even exist.

MCENANY:  That's true.

DESANTIS:  People were making their decisions, the state was booming, and, really, we never looked back.

And so we got it right in there. And it wasn't just people moving here to live, people visiting, the way our economy responded. And I just had to look at the data. But you know what you had to do, Kayleigh? You had to be willing to stand out there all alone, because I didn't have a lot of backup for that. Fauci was attacking everything Florida did.

MCENANY:  Yes, he was.

DESANTIS:  There were other bureaucrats attacking us. The media was attacking us.

But you know what? My job was to stand up for the people that I represented. I didn't know what that would mean for my political future, but, quite frankly, you got to be willing to sacrifice that to be able to protect the jobs and the liberties of the people that elected you.

I stood my ground. We stood in the breach, and the state of Florida is better as a result of that.

MCENANY:  Yes, I mean, look, there's no doubt about that. I came to Florida a lot on the weekends. People don't know that. I left the swamp, and it was pretty joyful to be in Florida. I went to restaurants. I drove on the highways. Things were open.

But what's your response to someone who would say, Governor Kemp, he opened quicker, or they point to South Dakota? What's your response to that attack from the right?

DESANTIS:  Well, I think Brian Kemp did a good job. He's a friend of mine. He's a good governor. I applaud him.

I think what I did more aggressively than anyone was overrule local governments who were imposing these restrictions. In Florida, the state government did not do very much. We're talking about a few weeks. Some of the local governments, particularly in South Florida, were trying to impose mandates.

And so what I did was, we overruled that. We said, you can't close business. You can't fine people for not wearing a mask, and we actually issued a blanket pardon for anyone who local government had tried to enforce COVID restrictions against. That is really what opened the floodgate, because you can say the state's open, but if every other municipality is doing Fauci-ism, that's not a free state.

We pried the state open at the local level, and I think that was really the secret to Florida doing very well in those circumstances.

MCENANY:  And new data out today, no learning loss for fourth graders between 2019 and 2022 in the state of Florida because you kept those schools open.

On China, moving to foreign policy, Biden seems to think Xi is not a threat. He whispered that to a donor. Some hawkish folks on China on the right say we need to decouple from China. Is it your view we need to decouple from China?

DESANTIS:  Kayleigh, we are dependent on China for major parts of our economy.

You saw during COVID almost everything we needed came from China. So I think we need to reestablish our economic sovereignty. I think we need to produce more critical items here in the United States. And I think they have a huge amount of leverage over us because of really policy choices that have been made over many decades.

When China was put into the World Trade Organization and granted most-favored nation status almost 25 years ago, we were told by D.C. elites that this would make China more free, more democratic, it'd make the world better. In reality, it hollowed out parts of our country. It made China very rich.

And what did Xi use that money for? To build up more military capacity. He now has grand ambitions, not just in the Pacific, but even in our own hemisphere. And we see news where China is going to be working with Cuba to establish eavesdropping, maybe a military outpost.

That's a huge, huge threat to this country. So, yes, we need to declare independence from China economically, and we need to make sure that we have the ability to project the appropriate strength in the Pacific to work with our allies to deter China.

China understands the language of strength. And I think what Joe Biden has done since his first day in office, he's projected weakness. A lot of bad actors around the world see that, and that really whets their appetite to be able to do things that are going to be very harmful for the world.

MCENANY:  Would you be willing to use tariffs to get China to the negotiating table?

DESANTIS:  Yes, I would.

I think that what you need to do, if you're going to target a particular industry in China like that, you need to make sure we have incentives here in the United States to bring that industry home. It will raise the price of the China product, but we got to make sure it's economical here in the United States.

So you need to have -- couple that with tax incentives, tax credits. And even for things that are really important, like semiconductors, I would be willing to support government support on that. I typically wouldn't do that, because, generally, the market does. But I think some of these things are so important for national security, we got to be willing to lean in on that.

MCENANY:  Well, and we're starting to think about maybe China troops 100 miles from the coast of Florida, if they get that base in Cuba. Scary to think about.

One thing I have noticed, a trend here, is the attacks on the first lady of Florida. In The Washington Post, we saw that this week. I called it the most flattering hit piece I have ever read, because, basically, it said you love to be around your wife. You're a private couple.

What do you think when you see that? What does that do to your family and your wife, by the way, just a real rock star?

DESANTIS:  Well, first of all, I love my wife dearly. She's my best friend. She's a great mother, and she's a great first lady for this state, and she's made a positive impact on a lot of people.

She's a role model, because she went through breast cancer and did it with a lot of grace and stoicism, and I think inspired a lot of women who are facing similar in Florida that they could get through it. And so I couldn't be prouder of her.

Now, in the world we live in, Kayleigh, because she is somebody that people love and respect in Florida, and she's really effective when she's out on the campaign trail,people like the D.C. elites, they don't like that, because they know that we represent a threat to their leftist agenda. And so what do they try to do? They try to smear you.

And so they don't have very good luck with me, so they're now going after her. We're very strong. We have thick skin, and we just know that means we're both over the target.

MCENANY:  Yes, I got to say, my husband laughed when I read their attack on you. The best they could come up with in the liberal Washington Post, there are three things Ron DeSantis likes to talk about, the Constitution, baseball, and golf.

I think that's most men in the country.

Governor Ron DeSantis, thank you very much.

DESANTIS:  Thank you.

You get more news glancing at the tabloids at the checkout counter than this crap.