Gov. Ron DeSantis on Some’s Proposal to Accept Gazan Refugees: “I Reject That Entirely”
Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Governor of the Free State of Florida & Presidential Candidate, joined the Guy Benson Show to talk about a variety of topics regarding the war in Israel and the state of the race for the GOP nomination in the 2024 presidential election. First, DeSantis and Guy talk about the proposals from Marco Rubio to cancel the visas of foreign nationals who are in support of Hamas. DeSantis later responds to some critics that suggest the US should be taking in refugees from Gaza. Finally, Guy and DeSantis react to Trump’s incoherent comments on Israel. Listen to the full interview below.
Full Interview:
Listen to the full podcast below:
DeSantis had this to say on some people’s idea to allow Gazan refugees into the United States:
“We do not have a good ability to do that. We failed at doing that. I mean, we’ve brought people in from other parts of the world. I mean, some of the people from Somalia have gone on to commit terrorist attacks in places like Minnesota. They’ve been arrested for terrorism. So we don’t have an ability to do that. And so that’s absolutely not something I mean, I reject that entirely.”
Full Transcript:
GUY BENSON, FOX RADIO HOST: Let’s get to our first guest right now, the governor of the state of Florida, who’s running for president of the United States. Ron DeSantis joins us.
And, Governor, it’s great to have you back on the show.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Good to see you. How are you doing?
BENSON: Doing very well.
I’m very eager to talk to you about something that happened last night. You and the first lady of Florida welcomed a large aircraft that landed in Tampa. What happened there?
DESANTIS: So, we answered a need of people that had been stranded in Israel as the war broke out and were not able to get out of the country.
They did not have much luck with the embassy or the State Department. So, last week, I did an executive order. We scrambled our emergency management resources, and we were able to arrange flights. And we did work with the Israeli government, so that these flights could get in there.
And so the first flight was 270 Americans, mostly Floridians, but, honestly, not all, because there was people that were desperate. And, like, I’m not going to turn some — we’re all Americans here. So we did that.
And they were — some of them were in really difficult circumstances. And so they were very happy. But the interesting thing, because my wife and I greeted all these people coming off the plane. There were 91 kids that were on that plane. So, I mean, we were rescuing people who — we were rescuing moms that were traveling with four or five kids by themselves.
We were rescuing families that had a lot of very young kids, like under 3 years old, that they’re having to do. So that’s — I mean, I’m sensitive to that, because my wife and I have a 6-, 5-, and a 3-year-old. And I’m thinking like, man, imagine doing that as, like, these rockets are going off.
And that was — one of the mothers came up to me and she said — she pointed to her daughter, who was, I think about 6 years old, which is the same as my oldest daughter. And she’s like, as the rockets were going off she said: “I just — I don’t want these rockets. No more rockets. We got to get to Florida. I want to get to Florida. I want to get to Florida.”
So they were able to do it. And they were very happy. So we’re going to have more planes, definitely — probably two more. We think that there’s between 500 and 1,000 Floridians that need transport back. One of the things we’re also going to do is, what the feds have decided to do is, OK, we’re going to work to get you out of Israel, but they’re basically dumping people in Greece.
Well, the problem is, is, like, these folks, they don’t know anything about Greece. They need to get back to the United States. So our planes will likely stop in Greece and help load up some people who are stranded there by the federal government.
BENSON: So you’re helping to pull American citizens, many Floridians out of Israel, and then also out of Greece.
My understanding, Governor, is that the Biden State Department, under their policy, is, they’re charging people for the cost of getting out. So they’re being evacuated by boat and other means. And then, OK, if that’s what the federal government’s doing for you as a U.S. citizen, you have to sign a note, basically, promising to pay them back, some sort of fee to get them home.
Number one, are you charging the people on these flights to Florida? Let’s start with that.
DESANTIS: No.
BENSON: Number two, what do you make of that policy? It seems like the federal government spends a lot of taxpayer dollars on a lot of different nonsense.
Strikes me as maybe a good use of taxpayer money to get American citizens out of a war zone and not charge them.
DESANTIS: Yes, I mean, think about it.
I mean, how many illegal aliens have they flown to different places in this country at no charge? How many governments, local governments, state governments have put illegal aliens in really nice hotels? They’re not charging them for anything like that.
So it just shows the ruling class yet again putting Americans last. This is not something that’s high on their agenda. And so they’re not going to do — do what needs to be done, whereas some of the other stuff, like settling illegals throughout our country is. So they’re going to spare no expense and they’re going to get that done.
So I think it’s pathetic. And it does show. The people that have come on the Florida flights, they were genuinely appreciative of just showing leadership and not getting bogged out in the bureaucracy, not making any excuses.
But they definitely — you could tell, there was definitely a lot of dissatisfaction with how the federal government has handled this.
BENSON: Governor, as you watch some of the protests — and I put that word in quotes — the protests on behalf of the Palestinians, the media calls it pro-Palestinian protests. Anti-Israel protests is a little bit closer to the truth.
I would say pro-Jew butchery, pro-Hamas hate rally is a lot closer to the reality for a lot of people attending these rallies across the United States and across the Western world. When you see that kind of animosity directed not just at the state of Israel, but the people of Israel, a celebration of the murder of innocent people, how does that strike you?
Why is that such a malignant strain even among some in the United States?
DESANTIS: Well, it was very, very jarring to see, before the blood was even dried off the Israeli civilians who were massacred by Hamas, you had people going out and celebrating Hamas on the streets of America.
You had Harvard students signing letters praising what Hamas did. And I’m just thinking to myself, look, I’m proud to be very pro-Israel. I think that’s best for U.S. interests. I think that we have a tremendous relationship. There’s a whole reasons why I am. But, if you’re not, OK, that’s fine.
But even if that’s the case, why would you go out and celebrate that? And then to see this happening in cities all across the United States, it’s a huge, huge problem. And I came out very clearly. As the left started talking about bringing in people from Gaza, the Palestinian Arabs to the United States, I said, no, we’re not doing any of that.
And part of the reason I said is just, if you look at the culture there, they teach their kids in Gaza to hate Jews. I mean, the textbooks in schools do not have Israel on the map. They’re trained that killing Jews is a good thing. I mean, it’s a toxic, toxic culture.
And I fear what we’re seeing in some of these cities as a result of immigration policies that we’re not focused on ensuring that people coming to this country are 100 percent lined up with the core values of our country, because, if you were, I don’t think you would be out there celebrating beheading infants.
I just don’t think that you would do that. And I look at what’s happened in Europe and kind of their immigration policies, and I think it’s created huge problems that they’re now having to deal with. And I will never forget too, just because we’re now talking about the Israeli conflict with the Palestinian Arabs, September 11, the whole world really came together to stand with America.
But there were Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank celebrating the Twin Towers being taken down. That was a searing image for me to see that. And I remember it very vividly. The media, they — there was blowback, so the media didn’t want to kind of continue showing that. But that happened.
And it just shows you, I mean, that’s how some of these people think.
BENSON: Of course, there are a lot of young people in Gaza, kids who weren’t alive on 9/11, weren’t alive when Hamas was elected in 2006. They’re caught in this crossfire.
Their brains are being poisoned with the indoctrination that you just mentioned. But you can imagine their parents desperately want to get them to safety. What is the best thing that could happen here? Because you’re saying no to Gaza refugees coming to the United States. They should be able to go somewhere, I would imagine.
Is this time for some of the Arab allies who profess to care about the Palestinian plight to open up their countries? Is that maybe the solution here?
DESANTIS: Of course.
The Arab countries should take them. You have Egypt, you have Saudi, you have Jordan, you have Lebanon, you have others in North Africa, you have others in the Arabian Peninsula. They should take the Palestinian Arabs. They have never been willing to do anything. And that’s the thing. They kind of use it as just like a political tool, but they have never been willing to do anything.
And that’s traditionally how refugees work. You don’t resettle refugees halfway around the world anyways. What you’re supposed to do is get them out of the conflict zone somewhere in the region. So, that’s a no-brainer. That should absolutely be the case.
And, look, I have sympathy for some of these people caught up in this, but I think we also have to just be — we have to defend our own people and our own society. And if there is a toxicity that has developed, I think it’s unfortunate.
But I think importing that to our country is an absolute no-go. And that would be something I would be very firm on.
BENSON: One of your rivals in the presidential race on the Republican side is Nikki Haley.
And she — and The New York Times wrote about this — has a different view on this. She said that there is a longstanding ability for the United States to do vetting and to separate out civilians from terrorists.
What do you make of that framing when it comes to this question of the resettlement of Gazans potentially in the United States?
DESANTIS: We do not have a good ability to do that. We failed at doing that.
We have brought people in from other parts of the world. I mean, some of the people from Somalia have gone on to commit terrorist attacks in places like Minnesota. They have been arrested for terrorism. So, we don’t have an ability to do that. And so that’s absolutely not something — I mean, I reject that entirely with that.
And it’s also just it’s not in our interest to be bringing people in from the Gaza Strip to the United States of America. We got to start doing what’s in the best interests of the American people and don’t worry about virtue signaling or don’t worry about what elites think about this. And so it’s not something that is done.
But I do think we just have to be honest with ourselves. It’s not saying everyone in the Gaza Strip is a member of Hamas, although they did elect Hamas back in the day. And I guarantee you, support amongst the population in the Gaza Strip for those attacks on Israel probably is very, very high in terms of public opinion.
But it doesn’t even matter if they’re part of that. I mean, if they have kind of this embedded in their world view, which they do — and it’s sad and it’s nasty, but it’s true — that is exactly what we can’t have in the United States.
We got to unite this country, Guy. I mean, we got to just — we got to be united on the core principles. We — you — we can all have differences. You and I can debate welfare policy (AUDIO GAP) all that. That’s fine. That’s healthy, and even have really strong disagreements.
And, in Florida, we have taken strong stands and won big fights. But you have got to believe in kind of the core conception of America, the idea that our rights come from God, limited government, the idea that it’s wrong to go butcher people like that.
And if we’re bringing in people that aren’t necessarily on that page, then we’re making a big mistake.
BENSON: When I asked you a few moments ago about the pro-Hamas, the, effectively, pro-Hamas rallies in the United States, one of the senators from your state, Marco Rubio, he put out a statement asking the Biden administration to follow existing law, Rubio says, and if there are foreign national students who are supporting Hamas, to deport them, to throw them out of the United States.
Is that a policy, is that a plan that you think makes sense?
DESANTIS: Yes, absolutely.
I mean, you don’t have a right to be here on a visa. You don’t have a right to be studying in the United States. And we have a right to defend our people. And I think that having that is a huge problem. And our universities, it’s like, OK, they have had a huge problem.
I mean, like we all know we have railed against leftism in universities. I’m one of the only guys in America that’s actually done something about, if you look at what we have done in Florida. I could come back and talk about that at some time, because I think it’s an important discussion…
BENSON: We would love that.
DESANTIS: … that — that conservatives aren’t just ceding these institutions. We’re reclaiming them in Florida. And that’s why people are flocking here.
But I always note, leftism Marxism, like, they have that at universities. But, after 9/11, I don’t think in our universities you had students signing letters praising what had happened there. And then now you have a situation where that they’re falling over themselves to try to glorify Hamas terrorists.
This is a culture that’s been created in academia that is also not in the best interests of the United States. So we need to reorient academia back to its original purpose. It should be about pursuing truth and preparing people to be citizens of our republic. It should not be trying to impose radical ideologies on the students.
BENSON: There’s a horrible story out of Illinois where authorities say that a 6-year-old boy, Palestinian American, was murdered by a landlord where he was living, apparently motivated because of this conflict from some sort of retribution. Very sick. A small child dead.
The president put out a statement about it. If all those details are indeed confirmed, is it incumbent on supporters of Israel to distinguish themselves from how we have seen some of this sickness on the left and say, of course, a murder like that is totally unacceptable in this country?
DESANTIS: Oh, we — we do not want to bring that conflict here.
To be taking out — passions are running high, but to be taking it out on somebody who has a similar ethnic background to people over there, you cannot — we cannot go down that road. That’s a total dead end. And I have no doubt that pro-Israel folks will stand up and say that that is wrong.
One of the things that bothered me about some of the pro-Hamas, there are some will say, well, we’re not pro-Hamas. We’re just pro-Palestinian and Arab.
OK, well, you should be demonstrating in favor of Hamas releasing the hostages that they have.
BENSON: Right. Right.
DESANTIS: And yet I don’t see them doing that.
But, certainly, our country, we should stand with Israel a hundred percent, all that, but we do not want that conflict to tear this country apart. And acts like that, I think, are totally counterproductive, and they’re wrong.
BENSON: Finally, Governor, last question.
I mentioned Nikki Haley earlier, another one of your opponents in the presidential race. The front-runner, Donald Trump, he said some interesting things in recent days about Hezbollah, about Bibi Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. Seems like he’s done some cleanup there.
Just any reaction to the way that the former president has been talking about what’s happening over there?
DESANTIS: Well, I — you notice he doesn’t do very many events. He won’t debate. And when he does go out, they got him on the teleprompter.
But when he goes off the teleprompter or when he does give interviews, he tends to step in it and say things that cause a lot of blowback. And so when he was attacking Bibi, the problem with that is, he was doing that because he’s got a personal beef with Netanyahu, because Netanyahu congratulated Biden after 2020, and Trump has never forgiven him for that.
Trump views that as a personal slight to him. So when Bibi is manning the ship here, major conflict for Israel, one of our strongest allies, Trump’s taking potshots at him, not because of anything that’s happening there, but because of this personal beef that he has, you need to be uniting in situations like this.
A leader’s got to rise above any personal slight that you may perceive and do what’s in the greater good. And it should have been a message of solidarity with the prime minister and with the people of Israel. But, again, it was Donald Trump really putting his issues front and center.
And I think it’s about time that we have leaders that are going to put your issues front and center, that are going to put the American people’s issues front and center, that are going to do what’s in the overall best interests of our country, regardless of how someone may have personally slighted you.
BENSON: Presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, our guest here on “The Guy Benson Show.”
Governor, as always, thank you. We will talk soon.
DESANTIS: OK. Take care. Bye-bye.
