UNEDITED: Brian's full interview with former Governor Jeb Bush

So Governor, as I come visit you in Miami, how's Governor Jeb Bush doing?

Fantastic. Life is really good. I got five grandkids, three granddaughters here, two grandsons as you know in Austin. My family's blessed.

I'm madly in love with my wife still after 48 years of marriage. Life is good. I know even at any age when you lose a parent and we lost, I lost my mom the same year you lost your mom and your dad, it's tough.

Yeah. How do you deal with the holidays without them there? You know, it's almost every day I think about, think about my mom and think about my dad just through some interaction someone will bring up some story. My mom and dad touch so many people, you know, I constantly think about them a lot and so most of the time it's with joy that I'm so blessed to be their son.

Sometimes it can get a little sad, particularly around Christmas time. Right and people think just because you're older it shouldn't matter that's happens but it's not the case. No, no they didn't but look you, what a blessing to be George and Barbara Bush's son. I mean that was just talking about privilege, the term privilege.

Right. I mean when I woke up in Midland, Texas 69 years ago and almost 70 years ago and there was Barbara Bush in the hospital bed next to me, that was luck, pure luck. And instead of looking as as a burden to live up to, never like that.

Never. I mean my dad when I was I was struggled with it as a teenager probably, you know, the guy was like this hero like godlike figure in my life and then I realized look I think if I when I was I had just gotten married when I was 21 and I figured if I could be half the man he is I'll have lived a purposeful successful life. So kind of the pressures of trying to reach the near perfection that I saw through my, you know, that's that I thought my dad was.

That relief kind of made it easier for me to be an adult. Will you get together on holidays with your family? My whole my immediate family, yes. The George W and the rest of the my siblings we get together and typically in August. Wow, so this year your dad lost elections, you've lost elections and now your son lost his first election.

He wanted to be Attorney General of Texas. How did George P handle it and what was it like for you? Is it hard for you as a dad? You know, it's harder for the losses I've had were not as difficult for me as they they were for my parents and for your family.

Your family cares more about that. You figure out how to get through it. So George has handled it well. I was sad to see him lose because he's he was a really good public servant and he'll he'll he's a young guy.

He'll have a chance to get back into it. Got it. Let's talk about what's happening in Florida and during the midterm elections. They expected what happened in Florida to be nationwide.

Yeah, it was a red wave. Governor wins a resounding reelection. Why did Republicans not experience that they get the house by a slim margin and and they lose a seat in the Senate? I don't know, I was surprised. Thank God I'm not a political pundit because I would have been I would have been wrong.

But you know as much as just about anybody. I I just think that Florida is unique in the sense that conservatives have governed effectively. They haven't complained about how bad things are. They haven't said the Democrats are horrible. They've assumed the you know the responsibility of leadership and they've governed and people get it.

Well you drive down our roads, they're crowded but there's no potholes that you know break in your axle. So it was performance. It was a focus on education.

Our universities have gotten better. We have this commitment to the long-term things like building roads and protecting water bodies in the state and and led by Governor DeSantis, Republicans get credit for that leadership. It was a total wipeout. I mean there hasn't been anything like this in a long while. It was more than a red wave.

It was a tidal wave. I don't think the Democrats won a single race that was contested. And you're you're part of the mutual admiration society with Governor Ron DeSantis here. You've been watching what he's doing as a two-term very successful governor and you to say the least are impressed. Yeah no I'm a big fan and I look the the time when it matters is the time of crisis. That's when particularly governors and mayors I guess to a certain extent have to step up put aside all the hyper partisanship that's kind of the norm in politics today and serve and help people in their time of need. And he did that with the crisis that we faced the hurricane and and the most recent hurricane the collapse the surf side.

He worked with local officials put aside the partisan differences. That's what people want and he's delivered that. You think that he's got the momentum and is this the right time at 44 for him to run for higher office.

Yeah I think it is but he'll have to make that decision. My dad asked when I was running I was thinking about running for Congress in the 1980s and I you know I called my dad up and I gave him all the numbers and kind of went through the precincts and said you know this is a looks like this I could win. And then he asked he asked me a question that I'll never forget. He said what happens if you do win.

And I said what do you mean. Well are you going to take care of your family. Are you are you you know are you going to move to Washington. Where are your kids going to go to school. Is your wife going to be happy. And it took me like 20 seconds to say what a stupid idea it was to run for office at that time.

And I was about you know I was I was probably 40. So the first step for anybody to run the first step for anybody to run for office particularly one of that magnitude is what happens if I win. And he has to answer that question only he and his family can answer that. He's got little kids. He's got little kids. His wife coming off breast cancer.

Thrust into the limelight. It's it's it's pretty ugly out there right now in politics. But if he gets if he can get comfortable with that I think he would be a really excellent candidate.

It's interesting Senator Tom Cotton said I do have little kids and I'm not running. Yeah and I don't I respect that. I think the the blind pursuit based on ambition there's no good outcome.

You got to be totally comfortable. The first things come first which is if you love your family you need to make sure that they're the first priority. And sometimes it's it makes sense to do things and sometimes it doesn't.

So whatever his decision is I think I think he'll focus on that being the most important thing. What's interesting too is one of the issues that some say that they're Republicans is they got what they wanted. Roe v. Wade overturned. And you're the one of the most pro-life governors in the country when you serve. And Republicans couldn't message it and it looked like you were anti they messaged it effectively Democrats as if you're taking rights away from women. Marco Rubio said I'm pro-life but Florida isn't so I'm going to let Florida make forest decisions. Is there a right way to message the pro-life movement in a country that isn't predominantly pro-life? Well I think the wrong way to do it is the way Republicans did it which was to ignore it. I mean the Democrat position the the official platform basically is is abortions up till you know up till a child being born and that is not that's a radical position and that is not the mainstream position. There is some common ground that could be found.

Florida's rules law right now is 15 weeks. I would have advocated and I hopefully the legislature will lessen that but there's ways to message this by being on the playing field and advocating your position. What is a good what is a good way to say it? Well it's just say look you you know I don't I don't believe that you should have partial birth abortion. I don't believe I don't believe a teenager should have an abortion without their without notifying their parents unless there is a environment of abuse. I think there ought to be counseling for women that are confronted with this really extraordinarily difficult choice. They should be given options and I think you know they're they're after a certain amount of time there you can't terminate the life of a of a child so you have to explain it you have to advocate and you have to do it with compassion and love and exceptions.

I support rape and you know I think that's another element you can get into and there's a pretty good moral argument against that but I think you know the practicality is that exceptions probably should be part of a middle ground kind of policy. From the Fox News Podcasts Network I'm Ben Domenech Fox News contributor and editor of the transom.com daily newsletter and I'm inviting you to join a conversation every week. It's the Ben Domenech Podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to foxnewspodcasts.com.

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Subscribe and listen now at foxnewspodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Education. You watch Governor Youngkin really pull up one of the biggest upsets in Virginia come out of nowhere to beat Terry McAuliffe who just wanted four more years and he thought he would just walk to it and many people point to those what happened in Virginia at that school board meetings where people stood up and the parents were told to shut up. You live and breathe education in this country so what do you think about where we're at now and what should the position be? What's best for students? Well it's exciting that parents because they were the teachers of their kids during COVID in many places where the schools were shut down and access to the internet was non-existent they they had to do become the teacher of their children and the frustration they felt now can be mobilized to bring about meaningful reform and so the foundation that I'm the chairman of works across the country in advocating parental choice where parents can choose public and private options. We focus on early childhood literacy. There's this insidious idea that you can allow kids to learn to read by guessing the words by three queuing by going through a process where you look at the words and you kind of guess it rather than sounding out the words and learning what they mean.

The science of reading is pretty well established now but many states ignore that so there's a big fight and parents now engaged is a or incredibly important soldiers in this fight to assure that children have a fighting chance to gain the power of knowledge. And the bottom line is we trouble a lot of states getting teachers at this point that's a challenge. Number two is in Arizona you now can decide I'm going to take the money advocated for me for public school and I could choose private. I personally would not have had the money growing up to go to a private school. My public school was bad I'm going anyway. Now in Arizona they can make the choice.

Yep. I'm curious to see how this is going to come out and is that to me where we should be at with every 50 states? Money should follow the child that's the that should be the mantra. Why do we protect a system rather than empowering parents to make choices? You have to assume that children that moms and dads love their children with their heart and soul and they can make the right decision if they are informed if they are if they're given the right information they'll do what's right for their kids and so the ESA the education savings account can customize the learning experience not just to attend another school but also to get tutoring and other other means. Governor Ducey and the legislature in Arizona get huge credit for this and it's now a model. Florida has you know all sorts of options for parents but the great thing of our system is that when one state does something like this other states say well I'm gonna I'm gonna double down and try to do it even better. And so it's a competition makes the public schools better in theory.

Totally not theory. I mean Florida created the first statewide voucher program when I was governor and we've had an expanse of options both public and private for parents and the public schools here have gotten better because all schools get better when parents are involved. It's foreign to a Bush family but there's a war in history in our schools there's a there seems to be a movement among teachers or among principals or superintendents to look at our past and see problems and maybe do it in a way in which America lasts. Have you noticed that? I haven't noticed it around here. I've read about it. I've watched Fox and seen it on television a lot and there are places clearly where teachers are acting on their own ideology. Does it worry you?

Hell yeah it worries me. The idea that somehow that we're so you know you can you can admit that we as a as a country that it hasn't been a perfect ride. There are parts of our past that we need to understand so that we don't replicate that but you don't have to hate the country to admit that some part of our history wasn't wasn't proper and I think there's a growing belief that we're just systemically flawed to the core and so if you're a young person that want us wants to pursue their dreams and you're told over and over again that the system is just broken and you're never going to be able to rise up that's horrible that is so un-American and so my hope is that we have you know meaningful civics education that addresses our past for sure but loves our country that instills in people a sense that our future is going to be brighter than the past because we're America damn it.

I mean I'm tired of you know people tearing down our country. There was Jim Crow. There was slavery. There was a civil war. There was segregation. You could tell that story and still tell the American story and also if you get a perspective on what was going on in the rest of the world we didn't invent any of those things.

Those things were happening. I think the story is how we fixed it and we continue to try to make it better. Exactly and that's that's uh you know I kind of yearn for the day that Europeans would look at they used to look down their nose saying you Yanks are way too you know optimist naively optimistic. I think it's important that we restore some sense of optimism about our country.

Get the swagger back. And part yeah and part of it is based on a on our past that that has clearly our constitution our history you've written about this is so unique and we are a special country many ways and if we if we don't believe that we won't act on it. Is that part of your education education mission? Sure no I think you know there's there's a real there's a effort underway across the country now to focus on civics education that restores some sense of common identity in our country.

Financial literacy as well is another place where high schools particularly need to to act. There's a growing consensus that we have to do these things now and look the tearing down our country part that's that's not just related to our k-12 education that's that's you know many institutions now or leaders of institutions seem compelled to embrace this woke ideology. And you think that we could be getting through it when you see Jim Crow 2.0 wasn't the new law of the land in Georgia the election was flawless and they had a huge turnout.

Yeah. When you saw the blowback that Disney got from this governor when they decided to mislabel an education parental rights bill a don't say gay bill and do you saw the unboxing of a Columbus statue in Philadelphia because they say it was donated in 1876 we can take it down. Do you think that we might be on the other side of woke? I think we're getting there for sure when vanguard decides they're not going to be part of a climate council and vote their and vote their shares based on some ESG ideology that may may hurt American jobs for example. Across the board whether it's corporations higher you know universities k-12 education a lot of these institutions that had been captured by some degree of wokeness I think people are now realizing look I think maybe it's better to stay in our lane and do our job rather than expand our mission out to all these weird things that most Americans don't don't believe it. Hey it's Will Kane co-host of Fox and Friends weekend join me as I share my thoughts on a wide range of topics from sports and pop culture to politics and business the Will Kane podcast subscribe and listen now at foxnewspodcasts.com from the Fox News Podcasts Network in these ever-changing times you can rely on Fox News for hourly updates for the very latest news and information on your time listen and download now at foxnewspodcasts.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. We are at the border of Fox and put drones yeah and just by telling the story we're basically alone in doing it. Governor you know immigration is not a new issue in America but where with the with the dissolving in December 12th of title 42 they expect 18 000 illegals to come to our border what is it going to be like we were having trouble handling three it's up to eight what does 18 look like? It looks like an uncontrolled situation that a for the for the refugees the people that are crossing the border it's really dangerous and we're creating this incentive for them to come because they can't make their claim of persecution in their home host country which is what we should do and they the policy that President Trump started I think is the proper one and it created a decline in the number of people crossing because they they knew that if they came they weren't necessarily going to get into the country look great nations all nations have the right to control their border and we should have a commitment to legal immigration but we can't let people get in the front of the line you know there are people that will pay 10 grand for a loved one to come I don't blame them for that but the policy of the our country shouldn't be that they they get the higher priority are you astounded the President of the United States hasn't been to the border and what do you get by going what do you get by seeing well you you he doesn't have to go to the border all he has to do is watch the watch you guys on fox and show it it's it's clear that the people are crossing the border and and then they'll come they'll be they'll be allowed to go to Miami and other places where their loved ones are they'll get a notice to come for their uh their hearing about their claim of of persecution uh and their request for asylum and then two years from then 90 of them will be getting a deportation notice and they won't come for that one so this idea that you know we're we've blown up our the immigration court system uh there are backlogs galore making it harder for even people who have been waiting patiently legally to come to come in and you know President Biden should go to the border to show his support for law enforcement officers that are that are have a really difficult time and now you have fentanyl which has replaced heroin as this devastating drug for communities all across the country all of which or most of which is coming through Mexico this should be a higher priority and for whatever reason uh Democrat leadership in Washington seems to think that this is a salient political issue to to to support open borders I think working people whether they're Democrats or Republicans want want uh our borders controlled but you have Senator Schumer on camera Senator Harry Reid on camera talking about the need to have a strong border and build a wall he wanted 500 miles of wall Joe Biden signed on 500 miles of wall what happened I don't know it doesn't make any sense because normally you know good policy and good politics is the nice intersection you want to be in and this is this is bad policy and bad politics this is not a place where Democrats win politically um looking on the 2024 landscape there's a lot of talent on the right and I think even people on the left would say that if you look at Tim Scott you look at Rick Scott you look at Ron DeSantis the former president's going to be uh in the mix of that you think that Mike Pompeo is probably going to do it Mike Pence is going to be in it's hard to think on that stage and see people without merit and accomplishment how would you rate it no I think there'll be a lot of people running there's no there's no entrance requirement you know the barriers of entry are pretty low people can run not you know with maybe an outside chance to to win because there's you know no harm no foul the key to me is are people qualified to serve do they have a servant's heart and there is a big group of really talented people that potentially will run for president for sure that are qualified and that could lead our country do you think that Ron DeSantis is head of that class he's he's I mean if you look at the polls he's certainly way ahead of everybody else including president Trump um governor what about for you if a for you if a republican is to get into office and they would say Jeb Bush we need some help would you would you go to Washington uh let me check my eight ball eight ball says I look not so good no look I mean you look great look young you look you run a marathon I can't do that but I I do think it's important for New Blood to get into into policy making in Washington it looks pretty stale to me and the fighting that goes on um it's almost as though like solving it like the immigration issue shouldn't be a partisan issue we have a problem let's solve it let's solve it in a comprehensive way let's control the border that 20 years ago that would have been kind of the standard operating procedure now um people think well this is a wedge issue that I can win if I just keep hammering home how bad the other side is and this great country is now being diminished because we're not solving our fiscal problems we're not solving a lot of challenges so you know bringing people with a fresh perspective that have a proven record of solving problems I think is important and I kind of think they ought to be younger too for crying out loud we got a bunch of old folkies in DC these days all of whom you know have served I got no problems this is not a personal issue but why is it that in politics now you have to be over 80 to be in a you know committee chair or something like that right president's over 80 you would you be surprised if president biden won a ran again I don't know I again the the issue there is can I serve and he has to make up his mind on that um how is he done he's done and some things I think he's done okay and other things it's been a disaster the spending kind of this is one thing I do think republicans need to get back in the game on which is fiscal policy I mean we're giving drunken sailors a really bad name right now the amount of money that is being appropriated on everything is a burden for my grandchildren that is hard to imagine over 30 trillion it's horrible and you know you can't compromise by saying okay you get what you want and I'll get what I want and it's just more spending these deficits are devastating earmarks are back and an omnibus is queued up bill to get us to funding no one reads that's like this thick and it's gonna you know if it's gonna keep the government open but the the amount of lard in that thing is gonna be disgusting but who's gonna get elected if they say we gotta rein in social programs you gotta rein in medicaid you got social security's insolvent medicare obamacare doesn't work who's gonna get elected cutting back things that people are getting the candidate that describes what the disaster is if we keep doing what we're doing now you know that that would be for me who the candidate that that describes that we're living way beyond our means that we're destroying the chance of children and grandchildren to have a purposeful life I would support that person and it's gotten it's been consistently bad because there's not a balanced budget requirement in dc as there are in every state but it's gotten you know massively worse and president biden's was proposing like triple what they what he got was more than which was more than any president you know in modern times is it has actually uh received in terms of the budget but it's all toward his agenda gotten past it would have been you know lights out i'm guy benson join me weekdays at 3 p.m eastern as we break down the biggest stories of the day with some of the biggest newsmakers and guests listen live on the fox news app or get the free podcast at guy benson show.com but what about the transition you're environmentally conscious what about the transition to green energy are we on the right track you know there was a i think today um this week there is an announcement out of the one of the great labs energy labs in our country that they have found fusion they found a way to create more energy than than it takes for fusion to me the answer is just american ingenuity american innovation basic research the best of the brightest people not outside of you know not not mandates by washington to protect one industry at the expense of the other but find the transition based on innovation that's american it's best and so i'm totally confident that there are solutions to these environmental challenges that we face without devastating our economy and pushing people away from high-wage jobs and so um but but the approach by the the so-called whatever the thing the inflation inflation reduction act come on you got to be kidding me but that this is like a kafka novel you know like uh that that bill was is picking winners and losers rather than saying let's invest in our future by basic research and allow for american entrepreneurship and ingenuity to find these answers do you have you identified china as a number one threat economically and militarily yeah there's no question they're they're still in their ascendancy although they have huge problems that that we should you know we should constantly find ways to to work with china we can't have a perpetual enemy because of the dangers that that brings to the american people but their their challenges um are are far worse than ours if you think about just demography alone they have a growing elderly population family formation rates at an all-time low the one-child policy created 20 more men than women for how many two generations or you know close to a generation and a half that's going to play out in a really ugly way in their in their country so uh the miracle of china may not be as uh may not look so pretty in the next decade or two uh but but they are a threat and i think president biden gets credit for curbing semiconductor sales didn't get much attention yeah well it was a um the bill itself is to promote domestic production but he also by by decree i think um i guess he has the power to do this uh stopped exports of of chip technology into china which will will slow down their progress in perhaps the most important industry that we have originally a republican proposal i thought too uh lastly and you're the expert but i think after this last election and knowing that independents are the fastest growing group in this country i think that most candidates realize that you cannot win with your party alone and do you think that it's now going to become an asset to show where you can compromise or are they going to get to the primary process get extreme again and go down the same lanes that's kind of work in progress isn't it because um it's hard to tell if uh there is i think there is a large number of people that don't play the hyper-partisan game don't like it don't don't follow it don't care for it um but they're not in the primaries they're not voting in the primaries necessarily so i think the key is for candidates to be talking about the future to to be hopeful and optimistic again rather than just say how bad things are i don't know about you i i i think we're we're in a great country and i i'd rather be you know brian i'd rather be 21 than 69 for a lot of reasons but you know the future is incredibly bright but we have politicians moping around saying the end is near and i just don't see how that's a winning message for independence education's dear to you yeah and when the president uh excuse me when the governor was upset about some of the curriculum in schools he put out a parental rights bill which was uh wrongly labeled the don't say gay bill which the word gay is not even in this bill could you talk about the turbulence that you witnessed the approach to the bill and and the resolve well it's pretty much it's a it's a good um example of this new political environment where people don't even read the bill someone coins it as a don't say gay bill that stifles uh speech you know of all ages and when in fact this the bill simply said that uh up till fourth grade parents are in charge of the you know sexual orientation and and all this you know all this discussion about sex i mean that's an 85 to 90 percent uh issue and governor de santis defended it effectively and um he should have i mean this this is look the end of the day this is a you know there are places in the state of florida where people were talking about inappropriate things to young kids it's not common it's not all over the place but it's there and i think it's appropriate the legislature to to pass a law like that the overreaction just made his views i think even more powerful and how he responded to that again he's got this pretty good knack of figuring out figuring out who to who to go after once they've taken these crazy positions and with disney was one of the people that took those positions and condemned the bill yeah from pressure they saved from their employees can you talk about the battle has that unfolded and what were you thinking because you know the importance of disney disney's huge florida and to orlando look 80,000 employees we don't have an income tax because people go to disney our sales tax revenues are paid for by 20 of the sales tax revenue more or less are paid for by visitors so it's hugely important so i think it's important to recognize how important disney is to the state but also take a stand against these woke employees that temporarily were kind of running the asylum there um i would love for disney to come to florida uh where you know we're headquarters yeah why not i mean this is a live and let live state we don't impose wokeness and we don't and we allow for freedom of freedom of speech and allowing people to have their own views look i mean if a liberal says something in florida they're not pushed out they're not cancelled they're not in any of that stuff this is a place where um where woke goes to die as governor de santa says but it's also a place where people of real diversity can come and pursue their dreams disney would be fantastic if they move their headquarters here but instead they lost their autonomous status within the next two years and they lost their ceo back comes bob eiger so the so you have this governor taking on 60 minutes a uh a politician slayer sometimes and and excels then he takes on disney and he as of right now how did that play out would you have done the same thing i don't know i don't think so i don't think i would have punished disney for the foolish nature of of a few 20-something employees that um for whatever reason the ceo felt felt uh you know cave to um i'd give him a break and now that this is over and people you know can look at this freshly hopefully the legislature and you have a new ceo bob eiger understands the role of florida plays in in disney he understands how important florida is uh and he's you know he's very savvy my guess is that they'll figure out a way to resolve this so one of the things that ronda santis did is seeing the legal immigration issue there were planes landing in jacksonville unannounced with illegal immigrants dropped off without telling the governors he decided and might do again to take a plane load of immigrants on signed a piece of paper and they went to martha's vineyard it didn't go over big to the people of martha's vineyard but it certainly sent a message and had people talking about it yeah uh is that one of the things that as governor you think was a good move uh they use state money for it i wouldn't have done it i'm a conservative i don't think we should be spending money on stuff like that here's the deal what we what we should be doing is fixing our immigration policy we shouldn't be allowing millions of people to be coming across our border and then migrating on their own to martha's vineyard and other places which is what they're doing uh and they're they're they're basically pushing back people who have been patiently waiting to come legally to our country to the back of the line that is just wrong and you know ninety percent of the american people believe that's wrong but you see the governor of texas also getting frustrated he's overwhelmed no i know they have every right to be i mean particularly texas and arizona completely agree with that so the federal government doesn't solve it solve it rather than use it as a political tool if you can't get the president to pick up the phone and even go and visit you or that's right look that's the problem that's the that's the problem with dc right now is 90 of the american people don't think we should have open borders and yet for how long has it been since uh we can't find common ground to solve this problem i guarantee you if doug ducey or greg abbott got in a room with with the president said here's here's a comprehensive way a bipartisan way to solve this problem and brought the you know the democrat members of the legs of the congress from those delegations around the table they would they would solve this problem but everybody uses it for a wedge issue and it's really frustrating so you understood why he did it yeah you wouldn't have done it no no i mean i i was shocked that the state legislature funded 20 million dollars of state money for it it's like wow but it did give people talking about it sure did it sure did and and it propelled him even further up the you know into the minds of a lot of voters very frustrated with this issue put the power of over 100 meteorologists and the worldwide resources of fox in your hands with the fox weather podcast precise personal powerful subscribe and listen now at fox news podcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts i'm guy benson join me weekdays at 3 p.m eastern as we break down the biggest stories of the day with some of the biggest news makers and guests listen live on the fox news app or get the free podcast at guybensonshow.com