Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to advance the hypothetical of an attack from the Bahamas by way of illustrating support for Israel’s ongoing operations against Hamas.
“Down in Florida, if we were getting rockets fired from the Bahamas to, like, Fort Lauderdale, we would level, we would never ever accept that. I mean, it would be flattened. The people, wherever that was coming from would just be flattened,” DeSantis said in Dubuque, Iowa.
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.
“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.
He also made the claim in New Hampshire last month.
“You know, as Governor of Florida, if somebody from the Bahamas was firing rockets into Fort Lauderdale, we would not accept that,” he said. “We would flatten it, like, in no time. We would never accept that happening to our people.”
DeSantis also paired the argument with an allusion to 9/11.
“Can you imagine just after our 9/11, if three weeks later, people were demanding that we had a cease-fire against al-Qaida and the Taliban? We would never have done that. And I think to myself as Governor of Florida, if we had, if someone in the Bahamas was launching missiles into Fort Lauderdale, we would not accept that for a minute,” DeSantis vowed in a previous Iowa visit.
“We would go in and we would flatten them in no time certain.”
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.
The post Ron DeSantis repeats claim that he would ‘flatten’ the Bahamas if they attacked Florida appeared first on Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..
