Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took time to sling pizzas at a New York City culinary landmark after hearing of Mayor Eric Adams' administration's potential regulation on coal-fired ovens as part of the Left's green policy push.
DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, shared the pie with "Jesse Watters Primetime" host Jesse Watters, and discussed the issue with him and Grimaldi's co-owner, Anthony Piscina.
Piscina welcomed Watters and DeSantis to try their hand at cooking a pizza, as the host reported the governor's campaign reached out after hearing about Adams' purported anti-pizza policy. The mayor however separately said he holds no ill will toward the city's famed institutions.
Piscina told DeSantis he was happy to have added Florida locations over the years and held up a large chunk of Pennsylvania coal, jokingly labeling it "the culprit" and calling it "the best, cleanest-burning coal there ever is."
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DeSantis, whose father Ronald hailed from Aliquippa, Penn., not far from the Commonwealth's coalfields, criticized the Left's opposition to coal-fired ovens and offered what his state has done to push back.
"In Florida, when they went after the gas stoves, we just made gas stoves tax-free in Florida — no sales tax. We will do something similar for these coal-fired ovens," DeSantis said.
The governor added he plans to "roll out the red carpet" if there's an exodus of the city's ubiquitous pizza shops.
DeSantis then took his turn at tossing a Grimaldi's pie in the now-targeted brick oven, later enjoying his finished product with Watters.
"The idea they would be going after this? I mean, honestly: I see a lot of the people leaving New York who complain about what goes on up here, but even I wouldn't have believed that they would have dreamt of going after this. This is a staple of this city," DeSantis said.
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"They just want to control — you have an itch on the Left. They want to control behavior."
DeSantis drew parallels between the Left's green regulation proliferation and the coronavirus lockdown mandates in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and beyond.
"A lot of that wasn't about your health. It was about [how] they wanted to control your behavior. So they just don't want people to be happy and be able to make their own decisions."
Watters quipped in response that Democrats must want New Yorkers to microwave their food from now on instead.
Later, DeSantis discussed his trip to the Mexican border, saying that the cartels obviously operate "with impunity" under President Biden's lax policies.
DeSantis recounted viewing one border wall abutment, where an individual was motioning smugglers around the end of the barricade while Border Patrol was out of sight.
DeSantis also recounted dealing with criticism from Democrats during other states' COVID lockdowns, saying he distinctly remembers Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., attacking the Sunshine State for remaining largely open.
"Next thing you know, she's on South Beach just living the life."
DeSantis was later asked about the Hunter Biden probe.
"If Hunter were a Republican, he would have been in jail a long time ago," he later added, pledging to institute a single standard of justice if elected president.
