DeSantis vows no ‘yes men’ in presidential administration

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis emphasized why he doesn’t want to have a “bunch of yes men” around him during a future presidential administration.

“I look for people that are independent, obviously they’ve got to share the vision, but as issues come up they’ve got to give their best judgement on all this stuff,” DeSantis said during an interview.

“You don’t want to just have a bunch of yes men around, and so you want them to be able to articulate ‘hey, I think this, I think that,'” he said. “And not fear that they have to just tell me what I want to hear.”

He added that “it makes no difference” if someone was attempting to flatter him.

“I’m looking at what type of a job you can do, do you share the vision, do you have the aptitude and most importantly, do you have the backbone to be doing this stuff when you have opposition?” the governor said.

He explained that in Washington, anything worth doing is going to be opposed by the bureaucracy, the media and the “left.”

“You’ve got to have people that have some strength and have some fortitude,” he said. “So, that’s what I look for and I definitely don’t want people to just kind of flatter me. That does not go anywhere with me as a leader and that’s not how leaders should function.”

DeSantis currently trails former President Donald Trump in the upcoming GOP Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary polling.

According to the RealClearPolitics average, DeSantis sits in second place behind Trump in Iowa, with less than 19% support.

In New Hampshire, he additionally trails former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie with nearly 10% of the vote.