At a press briefing at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, promoting Congressional term limits, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was asked if he'll ever run for President again.
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00:00This has nothing to do with running for anything. I've been involved in term limits for probably 15 years now.
00:06I've done this as a congressman. I was the one that introduced the U.S. term limits resolution to pose limits on members of Congress.
00:13Didn't get a whole lot of support in Congress, as you can imagine, and so since I've been governor, anytime I've had an opportunity to do it, I've done it.
00:21So I wouldn't read anything into it in terms of political. I will be doing this term limits thing until we get it done.
00:28Jeremy?
00:29Mr. Speaker, do you favor legalizing an iLottery, an online booker?
00:33We're just going to talk about this. Ask me that tomorrow after rules if you'd like to, if that's okay.
00:39All right?
00:41Governor, do you expect to actually get to 34 states on this, or are you building momentum to try to get Congress to act on it?
00:49So I think that if we build the momentum, I do think Congress will act.
00:53I'm fine taking it through to 34, but the reality is I know how these guys operate, right?
00:58And so what they would do, so say you have the amendment, three terms in the House, two terms in the Senate.
01:03So that's 18 years someone could serve. That's a long time, big portion of someone's life.
01:07Say that's getting momentum.
01:09I think what they would do is see the writing on the wall.
01:12They'd probably do something similar, but they'd probably grandfather themselves in.
01:17And so if someone had been in for 20, it wouldn't attach until the new representative gets elected.
01:22So there's a lot of permutations where they could take it, do something that would still be positive but maybe not quite as good.
01:29But then people like me would just say, well, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
01:33I mean, the amendment process, if you do do an Article V convention, would take a lot of time.
01:39If we get a dozen states to come on board pretty quickly, that momentum's there, and you get into the mid-20s,
01:46and then all of a sudden Congress is going to notice, it would be easier if Congress just wrote it and passed it
01:51because they can do two-thirds, and immediately that goes to the states and then let the states decide.
01:56If you actually got to 34, then you'd have to have the states meet.
02:01They'd have to write it, and then they'd have to approve the proposal.
02:04Then you still have the states that would have to turn around and either vote yes or no on ratification.
02:10So practically speaking, if we could pressure Congress to do the right thing, that would be the easiest route to go to get it.
02:18And look, I'm confident 38 states would ratify term limits.
02:22There's some other things that I would be supportive of for changes that I recognize may have more of an uphill battle.
02:28But even in states like California, voters have embraced term limits when it's been put to them.
02:35So I feel very confident that it would get 38 states.
02:40I've not seen an issue that's polled above 80 percent consistently literally for like three decades.
02:45I mean, it's incredible the amount of support you have for term limits.
02:48I mean, it's incredible the amount of support you have for term limits.