Gov. Ron DeSantis joined other GOP presidential candidates Saturday, addressing a high-profile Republican Jewish Coalition event in Las Vegas on the heels of Mike Pence suspending his own 2024 campaign.
DeSantis didn’t remark on the narrowing of the race, however, instead sticking to now-familiar lines about the Israel-Hamas conflict and related issues.
“If these (Hamas) barbarians had their way, they would try to do a second Holocaust in our time,” DeSantis said, describing the October 7 terror attacks as the “personification of evil.”
“Israel values life. These Hamas terrorists value death,” DeSantis said, denouncing “reprobates” at the United Nations and campus protesters and vowing that the U.S. will help Israel achieve “total victory in this conflict.”
DeSantis related the situation in Israel to Florida, noting the state “took action” by activating Highway Patrol and other law enforcement assets to protect the Jewish community. He also described evacuation flights to help Floridians and others “struggling” to get stateside while the “Biden administration was dragging its feet.”
“We’ve rescued 700 Americans,” DeSantis said. “Mostly Floridians, but not all, because we’re all Americans.”
DeSantis also reiterated promises to cancel student visas of pro-Palestinian protesters, while spotlighting his own efforts to stop campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine for “giving material support to terrorists.”
“I’m sick of funding our enemies,” DeSantis said.
The Governor said it’s imperative to “fight back” nationally, as Florida has, noting the upcoming Special Session that includes sanctions against Iran. It’s not immediately clear how much business Florida does with the Tehran government, of course.
As he has before, DeSantis suggested people who came from the Southern Border, from Iran, China, Russia, and the Middle East, will be agents of terror in the years to come. He vowed to “send the military to the border.”
“I’m stopping the invasion,” DeSantis promised.
DeSantis also reiterated his position that Palestinians are effectively Hamas supporters, learning that “Israel should be wiped off the map.”
“We can’t vet all this stuff out,” DeSantis said, contending that allowing refugees would be tantamount to “importing toxic ideologies” from the region.
Ahead of the speech, DeSantis’ campaign rolled out a website “detailing his long-standing record of supporting Israel and combating antisemitism.”
Yet while Team DeSantis launched a landing page, former President Donald Trump landed one of the most significant supporters in the pro-Israel community.
As first reported by Marc Caputo, Trump will dine with Miriam Adelson, the widow of Sheldon Adelson on Saturday. That conclave would seemingly undo years of work DeSantis has spent cultivating support from the Adelsons, seemingly signalling formal support for the former President over the Florida Governor.
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