Bryan Houston

Governor DeSantis says the NUMBER ONE reason Republicans lost is corruption like Susie Wiles lobbying schemes, insider trading and prediction markets. DeSantis says you are going to find out the extent of it when Democrats start investigating. “Think about it. You show up to Congress. You've never displayed any investment acumen in your life. All of a sudden, you're meeting Warren Buffett with this suspiciously timed trade. Oh! A company that is actually under one of your committee's jurisdictions. That is just something. And then you see all the other things. And you're going to see a lot more in the news, I think, in the next few months. And that's going to be the focal point, probably, of the Democrats' investigations and oversight. But the reality is that was the number one issue that voters thought was important. It was even more important, if you look at the polling, than economy. And that was very high, too. And then it was just general lack of confidence in Republicans beyond that. I get elected to Congress in 2012, sold the stocks. I’ve never traded a stock in elected office. Why? Because I don't want to be in a situation where I do something and then, oh, you did this and you voted this way, you did that. I’ve never done it. I declined the pension as a member of Congress and the health care. In governor, we've increased pay for state employees a bunch of times. I never took it for governor. My salary is the same as it was there. The idea that public service is a way to leverage power to enrich yourself was anathema to what our founders believed. And so I've tried to lead by example with how I behave. But what you're seeing in Washington is clearly not consistent with what our founders believe was necessary to kind of create a foundation for a successful republic. So I think we should ban the congressional stock trading. You should not allow them to be making money on prediction markets. You should not be able to allow the way the lobbyists and everything happens. So there's definitely things that need to be cleaned up. Republicans should be leading this. Weren't we the ones saying, drain the swamp not a few years ago? And yet the Democrats now are able to take that and they're making hay out of it. But that was a big issue. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.”