In a recently unearthed interview with conservative talk show host Buck Sexton in May of last year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis bragged about meeting an “iconic” former president George H.W. Bush for a “powwow session” during Yale’s 300th anniversary celebration in 2001.
At one point during the interview, Sexton asked DeSantis about his experience as the captain of the elite ivy league school’s baseball team, successor to the 41st President, who was also captain of the team in the mid-to-late 1940s.
“I think, by the way, you also played at Yale, and if I’m not mistaken, George Bush senior, wasn’t he the Yale baseball captain as well? Am I wrong or is that an overlap there?” Sexton asked.
DeSantis replied: “He was the Yale baseball captain in 1948, and so he had already served in World War Two and then went to college after that.”
The governor went on to tell a story about the former president meeting famed baseball legend Babe Ruth on June 5, 1948, where the star gave Bush a manuscript for “The Babe Ruth Story,” which was donated to the university library.
DeSantis lauded: “The most iconic picture in the history of Yale athletics is Babe Ruth coming to Yale Field to get an award from the Yale baseball team, and George Bush 41 gave Ruth the award — and Ruth, he died within like a year.”
The Florida governor then proceeded to brag about meeting Bush as part of a celebration for Yale’s 300th anniversary.
“I was the baseball captain in 2001 there, and it just so happened to be Yale’s 300th anniversary. So they did this big jubilee in the spring to kind of celebrate that. And Bush 41 was kind of the featured speaker. So, he was in town for that, and he asked to come and meet with the baseball team,” DeSantis boasted.
Ron DeSantis at the FHCA Annual Conference on August 6, 2019 in Orlando, Florida – FHCApics / Flickr
“So people are like asking me about practice, like it was this big deal. Why get out there to the field and there’s all these guys with suits and the earpieces in kind of like in the bullpen area,” he said.
“And I’m looking at myself. I’m like, ‘This is really weird.’ So my coach called me over and he’s like, ‘Listen.’ He’s like, ‘You see those guys out there with the suits, they’re Secret Service agents. George Bush, 41, is here.’ He’s like, ‘You tell all those guys before he comes here, do not drop any F-bombs in front of the former president.’,” DeSantis continued.
The governor praised the former president for coming to meet him, adding that Bush was a “really nice guy.”
“So I was like, ‘Okay, I see.’ But he came out and basically just started, um, you know, talking about, uh, you know, our season and everything like that. But I thought that that was really nice of him to be interested in coming out there. And this is a guy that obviously had done a lot in his life, and he was a really nice guy,” he explained.
George H.W. Bush Visiting Somalia, January 1993 – USMC Archives / Flickr
“And at that point, you know, I was somebody, you know, I was a blue-collar kid from the Tampa Bay area. I end up there playing baseball, but I had never really met anyone that was that was that well known,” the governor then claimed.
“And so it was kind of an interesting thing. But since I was the captain, I welcomed him to Yale Field, introduced him to the team, and we kind of had a powwow session there, all the way back in 2001.”
While DeSantis has been attempting to distance himself from accusations of being a Bush-type Republican contender in the 2024 race, the governor has repeatedly praised neoconservatives in Washington — even describing the 41st president, who famously coined the term “New World Order,” as the most “inspirational” person he ever met.
JUST IN: Video emerges of Ron DeSantis telling young reporter the most inspirational person he met is Bush 41..
THOUGHTS?
— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) March 26, 2023
“Inspirational person that I’ve met…hmm. I don’t know, that’s a tough one. I’m trying to think who and kinda modern times. I mean, part of the thing when, you know, when you’re grown up and you’re a blue collar kid, I didn’t really get to meet a lot of people,” DeSantis, then a member of Congress, told a reporter in 2013.
“And then even in Congress now, I’ve only been there for four months. I mean, I guess I would probably say Bush 41,” the then-Congressman clarified.
Along with comparisons to the Bush family and consistently lowering primary poll numbers, DeSantis has also been likened to former GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and John McCain, and former House Speaker Paul Ryan.
In March, 45th President Donald Trump, the 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner, pointed out that DeSantis’ use of the term “gas station” to describe Russia had first been coined by McCain, and most recently echoed by Romney.
MCCAIN. ROMNEY. DESANTIS. pic.twitter.com/muJMu0aZvE
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) March 23, 2023
More recently in May, the governor downplayed his past support for the “Make America Great Again” movement during his 2018 gubernatorial run, affirming that one of his viral pro-Trump campaign advertisements was merely satire to garner “notoriety” from the hysterically anti-Trump mainstream media.
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