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Ron DeSantis: “We were ahead of the curve on Covid.”

Featuring: Ron DeSantis, Republican | Governor of Florida

Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida

Published February 4, 2026 | Video Starts at 1:12:33

I'm glad that they've been willing to come down to Florida and talk about some of these key issues. And look, we've on so many different things, we've been just ahead of the curve. We were ahead of the curve on Covid. I mean, everything we did, we were lambasted for. And then now everyone claims they were for it all along. (1:12:33–1:12:36)

CLAIM

Asserts that Florida was ahead of the curve in its response to Covid.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Ron DeSantis

“You had one mom, Megan Garcia from central Florida, her son committed suicide in part because it was being egged on by an AI chatbot.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 05:18-05:29
“Hyperscale data centers use as much power just to power the data centers as a city of half a million people.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 06:28-06:37
“The proposal that was last year in Congress, they wanted 10 years. States were not allowed to do anything involving artificial intelligence.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 13:13-13:23
“We were the first state to [not allow the purchase of land by China in the state of Florida].”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 15:53-15:55
“We led the charge to ban in Florida a central bank digital currency.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 55:59-56:05
“The American Society of Plastic Surgeons just said it's not acceptable to do the gender surgeries on minors.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 1:12:41-1:12:51
“AI is also being used to produce chatbots that will sexually groom minors online.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 04:58-05:06
“These tech companies are usually just bringing in foreign workers on H1B to do it.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 06:41-06:47
“There's no increase in electricity because the data center is like no way.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 07:14-07:19
“The copyright that we, that our founders put in the Constitution because they understood it was so important to be able to facilitate, you…”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 08:05-08:15
“The people that are the most government gung ho on AI, they're just like, damn the torpedoes, you know, all the centuries of Anglo American…”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 08:26-08:37
“Big tech companies and AI, you know, those are not part of the government obviously.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 10:10-10:17
“They're going to exert power that is more significant than probably any monarch has exerted, you know, in the history of the world.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 10:19-10:28
“Their policy was to kneecap the states and let big tech write the rules.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 13:51-13:58
“No industry has ever received such a subsidy as what was being proposed with that AI 10 year AI amnesty.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 14:18-14:28
“No Chinese support for our education in terms of donations that they use to get into our higher education.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 15:55-16:04
“We believe we've proposed the Bill of Rights for Floridians vis a vis AI.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 18:51-18:58
“Under no circumstances can the American taxpayer ever bail out any of these big tech companies for their investment decisions with respect…”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 42:43-42:54
“Too big to fail doesn't work. It didn't work in 2008.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 43:16-43:21
“They're losing money right now.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 43:41-43:44
“They're not going to be able to build the data centers that they had thought they could do a year ago.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 43:48-43:52
“We're all against the AI amnesty.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 44:58-45:01
“They want to get rid of the dollar, get rid of hard currency, make it all digital, then be controlled by a central authority.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 56:09-56:17
“The feds potentially could supersede us on that.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 56:36-56:40
“Our society is based on the idea that we would have like a state government, federal government, checks and balances.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 1:01:17-1:01:36
“They have the ability, I think, to potentially produce a completely alternative reality.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 1:02:58-1:03:11
“Policies discussed, if implemented in an AI Bill of Rights in Florida, would not prevent tech companies from developing applications that…”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 1:05:28-1:05:49
“We think there should be a disclaimer on [AI-generated political ads] to say [they are AI-generated].”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 1:08:30-1:08:33
“We did that years ago to say you couldn't do [gender surgeries on minors].”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 1:12:50-1:12:53
“Congress has the authority...to do a regulatory framework if they wanted to.”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 1:13:29-1:13:38
“What we're doing is really just exercising our core constitutional responsibilities to make sure that people in Florida are treated well and…”
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida | Uploaded February 4, 2026 | 1:14:01-1:14:15