Ron DeSantis continues to maintain that the Bahamas would be no match for the United States in the event of armed conflict or insurgent attack.
“If someone was firing missiles from the Bahamas into, like, Fort Lauderdale, we would never accept that. We would flatten. Anything that happened, it would be done like literally within 12 hours, it would be done,” the 2024 presidential candidate said in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Despite the need for the U.S. Embassy in Nassau to clarify that his comments don’t reflect American foreign policy, the Governor continues to use this metaphor to draw a parallel between hypothetical attacks on the U.S. from Nassau and the situation in Israel.
DeSantis has switched up the rhetoric before, saying it would take much less than 12 hours to obliterate the Caribbean archipelago.
“If people were firing rockets from the Bahamas into, like, Fort Lauderdale, we would never allow that. I mean, we would flatten them. Within like five minutes, we would flatten them,” he said in Eldridge, Iowa, in early December.
Other references on the trail in the last two-plus months did not include a time element, meanwhile.
The U.S. government responded to the first DeSantis commentary via the Bahamian press.
“The Bahamas and the United States enjoy an enduring and unique partnership. (Chargé D’affaires Usha Pitts) regrets if DeSantis’ comments suggested anything other than a close alliance between our two democratic nations,” the U.S. Embassy said in a statement to The Nassau Guardian.
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