Speaking with “Morning Joe” cohosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough on Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded to Saturday’s reignited conflict between Israel and Gaza, denouncing Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens and expressing fear that Americans’ support of Israel is limited.
“It’s important as Americans that we all come together,” DeSantis said. “Israel has a right to defend itself, and that means do that to the hilt. You have to uproot the terrorist infrastructure, these networks, and Hamas needs to be no more.”
The 2024 Republican presidential hopeful continued, however, saying that he envisions a scenario where a few weeks go by and Israel’s military response against Hamas is no longer as widely supported.
“I fear what happens in these situations is you have people say Israel can respond, then a week later, then two weeks later. Then people start to blame Israel,” he said. “There’s no moral equivalence between Hamas terrorists and an Israeli civilian, and they have every right to see this through to the hilt.”
Scarborough began the interview by emphasizing that of all the possible topics at-hand for their time together, Israel is of the utmost importance.
“I know you’ve visited Israel many times. Give us your thoughts about the people of Israel right now and what the United States needs to do to support them,” Scarborough said.
Speaking from Bal Harbour, Florida, the governor spoke on Floridians’ response to the conflict. He expressed that it is “raw for our community down in South Florida,” adding that the state has the second-biggest Israeli American community in the country.
“We have a large Jewish population that’s really expanded a lot in the last few years, particularly with the Orthodox Jews,” he said. “So everybody knows somebody who’s been over there. People know people that are missing, and unfortunately, people know people that had been killed. This is perhaps Israel’s darkest hour.”
Watch DeSantis’ full comments on the Israel-Gaza conflict in the “Morning Joe” clip above.
