Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis says the terror attacks in Israel deserve a swift and lethal response.
“They have a responsibility to not just defend themselves, but to use overwhelming force to wipe Hamas off the face of the earth,” DeSantis said this morning in northwest Iowa. “They’re terrorists. What they are doing it barbaric.”
DeSantis, who visited Israel in April, campaigned in Le Mars and Storm Lake today. DeSantis blasted President Biden for hosting a picnic for his staff at the White House this weekend and for a recent prisoner swap that freed five Americans but also gave Iran access to six billion dollars in frozen oil revenue. DeSantis said it means Iran’s leaders can send more money to terror groups like Hamas.
“This is just pathetic,” DeSantis said. “We don’t need a president ‘missing in action.’ We don’t need any more presidents that are past their prime. We need presidents that are actually going to lead and actually do the job, particularly in these crisis situatioms.”
During a stop in Le Mars, DeSantis also touted the debate he’s scheduled to have next month on Fox News with California Governor Gavin Newson. “California’s probably four or five years ahead of where Biden is in terms of going in a leftist direction,” DeSantis said. “A second Biden term or Harris or Newsom or whoever they throw out would basically mimic what California has done and all that will do is facilitate an even quicker decline of our country.”
DeSantis said his own record as Florida’s governor since 2019 represents “a model for American revival” and he said as president he’d bring discipline to federal government spending to get inflation under control.
“You’re paying more for everything because of what the people in Washington, D.C. have done over the last four or five years,” DeSantis said.
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley campaigned in Boone today. Haley, who served as United Nations Ambassador during the Trump Administration, said now is not the time for the U.S. “to be divided or distracted: because Israel should get all it needs to defend itself. She’s also calling for an end to taxpayer support of any country that sides with Hamas or fails to denounce anti-sematic activity.
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)