NBC’s Dasha Burns was back on Monday for her campaign to boost her reputation in the eyes of her liberal peers. On NBC Nightly News anchorman Lester Holt introduced her second take on Ron DeSantis, 2024 GOP presidential candidate, eulogizing DeSantis for “still trying to make a dent in Mr. Trump’s lead.” Burns began by repeating her favorite question of the day, asking DeSantis “is it possible that you’re potentially just out of step with what GOP voters are looking for right now?”
DeSantis was unfazed in his response, calmly retorting “so, if I had a nickel for every naysayer I’ve had in my life, I’d be a very, very wealthy man.” Burns then steered the conversation back to her plight of asking DeSantis if he accepted that Joe Biden won the election—a point she failed to make on Today.
Moving the topic to immigration, Burns questioned DeSantis’s proposed policy to use deadly force against drug traffickers. “We pressed DeSantis on his new border proposal to allow deadly force against drug traffickers demonstrating, ‘hostile intent,’” Burns said. Burns then posed a hypothetical situation directed at DeSantis, inquiring “would you similarly shoot illegal cross[ers] in general ‘stone cold dead’ like he had said his administration would do with drug cartels.”
DeSantis was steadfast in his response, explaining “No, it’s similar to, like, if you’re in the military you have rules of engagement. Anyone that’s hostile intent or hostile act, which the cartels are, you know, you would then engage with lethal force.”
Burns attempted to argue this would prove difficult by citing a “pregnant mom in a baseball cap with a backpack” versus a cartel member, however DeSantis concluded his answer with a reference from his experience in Iraq: “It’s the same way you would do in any situation. Same way a police officer would know. Same way somebody operating in Iraq would know. You know, these people in Iraq at the time they all looked the same. You didn’t know who had a bomb strapped to them, so those guys have to make judgments.”
Ultimately Burns left the show on a positive note by mentioning DeSantis’s wife Casey and her battle with breast cancer in 2021. She also squirreled in that DeSantis and Trump are both expected to be at the Iowa State Fair this week.