After signing a broad education bill in Jacksonville Tuesday that included a ban on biological males competing in girls’ and women’s high-school and college sports, Governor Ron DeSantis made an appearance on Fox News where he blasted the NCAA for a previously issued threat to pull events from states that pass such laws.

DeSantis recounted his conversation with Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls in which the two leaders saw the NCAA statement and determined they needed to get the bill passed during the 2021 Legislative Session.

During the interview, Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked DeSantis, “How much corporate pressure did you come under not to sign this bill?”

DeSantis responded, “You can’t be cowed by these organizations, or particularly by woke corporations from doing the right thing. And so my view was throughout this whole time, we have to protect our girls, it is discriminatory to force them to compete against biological males. And so if the price of having a tournament is that I have to deny equal opportunity to hundreds of thousands of young girl and women athletes throughout Florida, I am much more willing to stand with the girls. And to hell with these events.”

At the bill signing ceremony earlier in the day, which took place at a private school in Jacksonville on the first day of Pride Month, DeSantis made clear the intent of the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” included in the legislation (SB 1028) was to set the eligibility standards for high school and college sports to be determined by an athlete’s biological sex as recorded on birth certificates.

“I can tell you this, in Florida, girls are going to play girls’ sports, and boys are going to play boys’ sports. That’s what we’re doing, and we’re going to make sure that that’s the reality,” DeSantis said at the ceremony.

The NCAA has so far not responded.

During the Fox News interview, Carlson asked DeSantis if he expected Florida to be punished for passing the law.

DeSantis responded, “No, actually, I don’t think so, Tucker. Because I think what, what I think we’ve shown not just with this, but you know, we did a strong election integrity bill in Florida, actually stronger than Georgia. And we just made it clear. We’re standing with our folks, we’re gonna do the right thing. And so if corporations want to come in and try to bully us around, they are going to go nowhere. It’s going to be like hitting their head against a brick wall. The result has been, we’ve had very little to do with that elections bill. And I don’t think we’re gonna have very much to do at this point here, because we leaned into it and we stood strong.”

Watch the full segment below:

FL Gov Ron DeSantis signed a law banning trans female athletes from competing against biological girls in sports. He did this, he tells #TuckerCarlson, despite pressure from corporate interests. pic.twitter.com/6iSOCGvoF6

— (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) June 2, 2021