Comments About Humanitarian Assistance To Residents Of Gaza By Florida Governor Ronald DeSantis Disqualify Him From United States Presidency. His Logic: Because He Can’t Trust 100%, 100% Must Suffer.
Comments About Humanitarian Assistance To Residents Of Gaza By Florida Governor Ronald Dion DeSantis Disqualify Him From United States Presidency.
His Logic: Because He Can’t Trust 100%, 100% Must Suffer.
Governor DeSantis- Not Every Resident Of Gaza Is A Supporter Of Hamas Or Member Of Hamas.
For Six Years Governor DeSantis Was A Lawyer In The United States Navy- What Happened To The “Presumption Of Innocence” For 2.3 Million Residents Of Gaza? He Replaced It With “Presumption Of Guilt”
NBC News- “Meet The Press”
Washington DC
29 October 202
KRISTEN WELKER:
Joining me now is Florida governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican candidate for president. Governor DeSantis, welcome to Meet the Press.
GOV. RON DeSANTIS:
Good morning. Thanks for having me.
KRISTEN WELKER:
Thank you for being here. I want to dive right in and start with Israel, what Israel is calling this next phase of the war. If you were president right now, Governor, would you urge Israel to slow its current offensive to allow for the release of more hostages and for more humanitarian aid to get into Gaza?
GOV. RON DeSANTIS:
I would support Israel's right to end this problem once and for all. Obviously, we have an interest in the hostages being rescued. I would work with them. I would look at the intelligence to see what our options are there. And, of course, we have a strong interest there. But Israel is facing an enemy that wants nothing less than another Holocaust. They would eliminate Israel from the map if they could. Hamas would drive every Jew into the sea. So, I think it's important for the United States and one of our strongest allies that we stand with them, publicly and privately, in word and in deed, because I think if they do anything else than eliminate Hamas entirely, they're just going to face these types of attacks again in the future.
KRISTEN WELKER:
Governor, if you were president though, what would your message be to Israel in terms of defending itself but also trying to mitigate civilian deaths, which are already estimated to be in the thousands?
GOV. RON DeSANTIS:
Well, on the humanitarian aid, I've not been supportive of sending that to the Gaza Strip simply because Hamas will commandeer that money. And if you look at what Israel's facing now with dealing with Hamas -- there's been a lot of money that's gone to the Gaza Strip for humanitarian purposes since Hamas took power. Did they use that money to make life better for the people in the Gaza Strip? No. They used it to build a massive terrorist infrastructure. They have elaborate tunnels. They have all these things put in place that they have used to launch rocket attacks for many, many years and, of course, launch the barbaric attack on October 7th. So, Hamas is the problem here. And I think Israel's taken great pains to warn people to get out if you're a civilian casualty. Hamas takes great pains to try to get them to stay so that they can use them as human shields.
KRISTEN WELKER:
Understood your point that Hamas is hoarding some of that aid material, but aid organizations say some of the aid that has been recently sent in has made its way to civilians. My question to you, though, is: How much of a priority would it be, if you were president, to try to limit civilian deaths, Governor?
GOV. RON DeSANTIS:
Well, any time you're involved in military conflict, you want to be able to achieve, decisively, the military objective with minimizing damage to civilians and civilian infrastructure as much as possible. So, that goes without saying. But I think it's a double standard here when Hamas can go in and massacre babies, massacre elderly people, rape and mutilate, and it's almost like, actually, you have people in the United States that are siding with Hamas in the streets and cheering that. You don't hear much there. But then, all of a sudden, now, it's Israel is under the microscope for everything they do. Hamas can end this by releasing the hostages and unconditionally surrendering. So, they are choosing to put people through this. There's no way that they can do what they did and not expect to have a very, very severe response.
KRISTEN WELKER:
Well, let me ask you about some of the statements that you have made recently about those protesters. This week, you called for the banning of pro-Palestinian groups from Florida state colleges. Your Republican challenger, Vivek Ramaswamy, says that violates the First Amendment rights of these students. He writes, quote, "It's a shameful political ploy. It's unconstitutional. It's utter hypocrisy for someone who railed against left-wing cancel culture." What is your response to Mr. Ramaswamy?
GOV. RON DeSANTIS:
This is not cancel culture. This group, they themselves said in the aftermath of the Hamas attack that they don't just stand in solidarity, that they are part of this Hamas movement. And so, yeah, you have a right to go out and demonstrate, but you can't provide material support to terrorism. They've linked themselves to Hamas. And so, we absolutely decertify them. They should not get one red cent of taxpayer dollars. And we also have strong laws in Florida against fundraising for groups like Hamas. And we are enforcing those vigorously. That’s not a First Amendment issue. That's a material support to terrorism issue.
KRISTEN WELKER:
Yeah, just to be clear, you're citing the Florida law that says one cannot give material aid or resources to a terrorist organization. Do you have any support that they're actually doing that?
GOV. RON DeSANTIS:
Their own words are saying they're part of this organization, that they don't just stand in solidarity, that they don't just support what they did, but that this is their movement too. So, once you hitch your wagon to a group like Hamas, that takes you out of the realm of normal activity, and that's something that we're going to take action against. So, we believe we're totally justified within the law. And I think things like this have been litigated time and again. But here's the, here’s the broader point. You know, are we just going to commit suicide as a country and let groups metastasize who are openly siding with brutal terrorist organizations? I don't think that's a recipe for a successful country. I want to have a country where we're protected from that stuff. So I think we made the right decision. I stand by it 100%.
KRISTEN WELKER:
You take me to my next question. The only Republican Jewish state representative in Florida, Randy Fine, recently broke from you in an op-ed in The Washington Times. He says you haven't been nearly as vocal in opposing neo-Nazi harassment and attacks in your state as you have in opposing what you believe support for Hamas, which you just laid out. What's your response to that, what he's accusing you of, this hypocrisy effectively?
GOV. RON DeSANTIS:
Well, he's just trying to get his 15 minutes of fame. I mean, this guy was singing my praises a couple months ago. He's got his different reasons why he's doing that. We have acted very, very swiftly and decisively. I mean, for example, after this attack, we dispatched state law enforcement working in conjunction with locals to protect our Jewish institutions: our Jewish day schools, our synagogues. There have been arrests that have been made with people that were threatening to do harm to our Jewish community. And we have some of the strongest laws on the books, from anti-BDS to financial support for security of anywhere in the country. We're also one of the states that's had probably the most in migration of Jewish residents, and we have the second-highest Israeli American population in the entire country. So, people vote with their feet. They see the type of environment we've created here that's been very strong and positive. And name me, Kristen, another governor who scrambled planes to Israel to bring them back
KRISTEN WELKER:
But, Governor –
GOV. RON DeSANTIS:
– bring Americans back from the war zone. We did that. We got that job done. Almost 700 people we've rescued, and we're proud of stepping up and leading on that.
KRISTEN WELKER:
Governor, let me ask you, though, because, as you know, words also matter. You are the governor. You are a presidential candidate. Your state has heard from both Marco Rubio and Rick Scott condemning those neo-Nazi protests. Why didn't you speak out? Why didn't you use your voice to say that you're not going to stand for that?
GOV. RON DeSANTIS:
Of course we condemn that. I mean, that’s – you just look at everything that we've done in terms of our policies –
KRISTEN WELKER:
But you didn't at the time, Governor.
GOV. RON DeSANTIS:
I don't think you could have –
KRISTEN WELKER:
You didn't at the time, according to Randy Fine. According to Randy Fine, you did not at the time –
GOV. RON DeSANTIS:
Well, right. And he's, and he’s, and he’s just trying to create a name for himself, so that's all nonsense. Everybody knows that's nonsense. And don't give somebody a 15 minutes of fame just because they're letting you try to do a preferred narrative just to hit me. It's nonsense. Our record is second to none, and we'll continue to lead on these issues.