Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis responded early Saturday morning to the Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israel, which have left hundreds dead and thousands injured.
The attacks were launched early Saturday morning local time during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah and on Shabbat — the Jewish day of rest that is observed by many in Israel.
“The dastardly terrorist attacks perpetrated against innocent Israeli civilians by Iran-backed terror group Hamas deserve a swift and lethal response,” DeSantis said from his official Florida Governor account on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. “Israel not only has the right to defend itself against these attacks, it has a duty to respond with overwhelming force. I stand with Israel. America must stand with Israel.”
The dastardly terrorist attacks perpetrated against innocent Israeli civilians by Iran-backed terror group Hamas deserve a swift and lethal response.
Israel not only has the right to defend itself against these attacks, it has a duty to respond with overwhelming force.
I…
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) October 7, 2023
A short time later, DeSantis released a video message from his personal X account where he echoed the same remarks in his official statement — and added blame on President Joe Biden’s policies for the situation.
“Joe Biden’s policies that have gone easy on Iran has helped to fill their coffers,” he said. “Israel is now paying the price for those policies. We’re gonna stand with the State of Israel. They need to root out Hamas and we need to stand up to Iran.”
Israel is now under attack by Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists. Iran has helped fund this war against Israel and Joe Biden's policies that have gone easy on Iran have helped fill their coffers.
We are going to stand with Israel as they root out Hamas and we need to stand up to… pic.twitter.com/FENQtAxiDE
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) October 7, 2023
DeSantis laid into Biden harder during remarks to reporters while on the campaign in Iowa, saying that it was unacceptable that Biden took so long to respond to the attacks.
“He said that he was up at 7:30 in the morning, but this was happening late last night into the early morning and the president needs to be there answering the call when our top ally in the Middle East is under the gun,” DeSantis said. “You can’t be sleeping on the job. You got to get there, you gotta do it, and you got to engage. And I think that we need to see leadership here and be a very clear voice. We need very strong support for the State of Israel.”
DeSantis highlighted Biden’s decision to unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue and how while some people claim that the money was not used for these attacks it still allows Iran to finance Hamas because the money is fungible and they can free up money elsewhere.
“And then some of the stuff left over from Afghanistan has gotten into Hamas,” he said. “So this is the equivalent for Israel of probably what happened in the United States on September 11. This is probably the worst attack Israel’s faced since the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and certainly one of the greatest attacks in the history of the modern state of Israel.”
He called Hamas’ murdering of families and children “brutal” and “unconscionable”.
JUST IN: @RonDeSantis rips Biden for “sleeping on the job” while Israel was under attack by Hamas terrorists.
“He said that he was up at 7:30 in the morning, but this was happening late last night…The president needs to be there answering the call when our top ally in the… pic.twitter.com/jRiWAaUJH4
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) October 7, 2023
