DeSantis Talks About the Israel-Hamas Conflict Transcript

All right, well, let’s just talk about the scale, the complexity of an operation like this. How big of a challenge was it to stand up this operation?

Well, look, we do emergency response in Florida, so we have to deal with contingencies. We had a situation where Florida and Israel have a lot of close connections. We’ve got people that come back and forth. They weren’t able to get out after the first couple of days, so we did the executive order and said, “You know what? We have the ability to do it. We can leverage our relationships, get the job done.” We worked with the Israeli government and we were able to land this plane here, 270 people that landed here in Tampa. And the thing is, my wife and I greeted the people coming off. The number of kids that we brought back, there were families.

Scores.

There was one family that had 10 kids with them. There were some mothers that were traveling alone with three or four kids. So you can imagine being in that situation as stressful enough as it is that your flight’s getting canceled, you can’t get out, but then to have really little kids. So there was a lot of appreciation to be able to be back in the United States.

To that point, look, you’ve seen this conflict through screens, right? You’ve heard about it, you’ve gotten your briefings. But now to be able to hear the stories firsthand from the people that have come here, how much has that impacted your perspective on the urgency to get those folks home that have not been able to get back and the urgency around the US response here?

Well, one of the families that I talked to pointed to probably about a five or six-year-old girl, somewhere to my daughter, and said that she was saying when all the rockets kept going off, kept going off, “I don’t want the rockets. I want to go to Florida. I don’t want the rockets. I want to get back to Florida.” So they’re seeing this, they’re in the middle of this with very young kids, so it’s a really, really stressful situation. So we’re just glad that people are able to get back here. But this is a real conflict. And Israel’s prepared for this and they have Iron Dome and these other things, but there’s a lot of rockets being fired all across the country right now.

With that story you just exemplified, the folks that are coming here, they’ve witnessed atrocities, they’ve witnessed devastation. How are you going to support the people that are coming here who are traumatized? Are you going to have trauma response on site here? What support are you going to be able to give them?

We’ve got a lot of support in there. So when people came and got greeted, they’re now in a situation where all Florida agencies as we would typically respond. And then there’s a lot of private groups that are there helping. We had kosher meals for everybody and tried to do it right. So we’re definitely doing… A lot of the people here, some people are from Tampa, a lot from South Florida, and then some have family here. And then there were some from other states too. My view is like, “Look, we obviously want to get the Floridians back, but I’m not going to leave somebody. We’re all Americans. I’m not going to leave somebody stranded. If someone’s in need, we do.” So we’re going to help people get to their ultimate destination.

So it’s not just Floridians. Your target is Floridians, but if other folks-

Exactly. So if Floridians need it, we want to be there. But if there’s someone from New York who is in dire need, I’m not going to tell them no. We want to be able to help.

And for the mental toll that this has taken on people, will you have mental health resources on hand for folks that need it?

Well, I think probably not right here, just because people are really coming and then they’re getting to their final destination. We really wanted this to just be, “Where can we get people…” And this airport, Tampa’s been fantastic to work with. Just get them here and then go on. And I think most of them actually are in pretty good spirits. I think there’s a lot of relief.

But as you know, someone who’s been in combat overseas when you come back and-

No, I understand, but I think that’ll be something in the local communities. They’re not going to be in Tampa very long, other than the ones who live in this area.

In terms of Americans in Gaza, what would you suggest America do about those folks?

Well, I think there’s two things. There are likely Americans being held hostage by Hamas still. And I think that the federal government should use all leverage possible to get them out. We have certain tools at our disposal that you can use. And I hear all this stuff where people are attacking Israel for responding. I don’t hear any of those people calling on Hamas to release the hostages. Why is Hamas holding hostages? They should do that-

So if you were in the White House right now, how would you handle this hostage situation?

Well, we have certain resources that can be deployed for those situations. Now, I would be working in concert with the government of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces, they know the battle space. They are preparing, of course, to launch more offensive operations. So you work together, but clearly, we have an interest in rescuing our citizens.

Would you be doing anything differently than the Biden administration is doing when it comes to hostages right now?

It’s hard to know because what they’re doing likely wouldn’t be fully public if they’re doing it right. So it’s hard to know. But I understand that these are very important situations, and we do have people that are trained to do it.

How would you handle the millions of civilians that are in Gaza right now that have nowhere to go? Israel has given a warning to those folks, but they don’t have anywhere to flee if those corridors are blocked off.

They should flee to Arab countries.

Would you put pressure on those countries?

Yeah, of course I would. You have Egypt, you have Saudi Arabia, you have Jordan, you have Lebanon, you have all these other Arab countries. They should be the ones to absorb any Palestinian Arabs leaving the Gaza Strip.

How would you get those countries to do that though?

Well, you have different levers at your disposal. There’s certain things they need from us, there’s certain things you can do, but I would not accept them to this country. I think that’s a huge mistake. Part of it, we have all these people coming illegally already that we don’t know who are. We just can’t accept, so we’re not going to do that here in the United States. They should go to the Arab countries. You look at the conflict, Palestinian Arabs and Israel through the years, these Arab countries have never really stepped up to do anything. They want nothing to do with the Palestinians. So they’ll bash Israel, but then they’ll turn around, they’re not offering any type of help. So they need to step up right now and handle those refugees.

To that point, you’ve made it very clear that you do not think the US should take in any refugees from Gaza. One of the reasons you gave for that is you said that all the people in Gaza are antisemitic. You have received some pushback on that, including from some Republicans, including some of your Republican opponents. Nikki Haley, for example, said today that, “America has always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists.” She also said that many of these people want to be free from this terrorist.

That’s not the question. It’s not the question of whether they’re all terrorists. In Gaza, they teach the kids to hate Jews. If you look at the textbooks, Israel is not on the map of the Middle East. So this is embedded in the culture. I think it’s a very toxic culture. I think that’s part of the reason Gaza turned to Hamas and the idea, they elected Hamas. And there’s a lot of support for Hamas there. So that’s a very toxic culture, and I worry about importing that to our country. And this was really bracing for me to watch.

(07:21)
When the blood wasn’t even dry off these Israeli citizens who were victimized by Hamas, you had people in our own country celebrating Hamas. Now, look, you can have different views on Middle East politics, it’s a free country, but to go out and celebrate them lobbing off the heads of babies and doing what we’re doing in some of our major cities, that was really, really bracing. And honestly, it brought me back to memories. One of the searing memories I have from September 11th, 2001, is almost the entire world came together to condemn what had happened staying with America. The people that were cheering though, there were Palestinian Arabs cheering on the streets of the West Bank in Gaza.

Well, and that was condemned by a lot of folks. And someone like Nikki Haley, for example, has condemned that. She’s very pro-Israel, but she’s taken a slightly more sympathetic stance on this conflict.

Look, I get it. Nikki Haley would import people. That’s been her proposition. I get that. She wants to-

That’s not necessarily her stance, but she says we should be more should be sympathetic and-

I would not import.

… see the humanity potentially in the folks that are [inaudible 00:08:21].

But you also have to speak the truth. And the truth is, in Gaza, it’s a dysfunctional, toxic society, in part because they teach young people to hate Jews. That is endemic to their culture. And we’ve been dealing with this issue. I remember in Congress people tried to defund some of the money going to the textbooks, but it is really, really bad. So you just have to understand that. And it doesn’t mean that they’re all members of Hamas, but what it does mean is that’s not something you want to import into the United States.

So that’s where you differ from your opponent, Nikki Haley, there you don’t-

I’m willing to speak the truth, she’s trying to be politically correct. She’s trying to please the media and people on the left. I don’t care about that. I’m going to speak the truth and let the chips fall where they may.

There’s a lot of polling that has shown that a large percentage of those folks in Gaza do not want to be under Hamas rule.

Well, I don’t think that you’re going to find a lot of polling suggesting that they believe Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. And I don’t think you would find a lot of pro-Jewish sentiment amongst the population because you’d be persona non grata there if you took that position.

So I know you were critical of the Biden administration in the initial response. Right now, with what you’re seeing from this White House, is there anything that you would be doing differently in this moment if you were in that Oval Office?

Well, just judging from the people coming off that plane, they did not get the support from the federal government that they wanted to. They didn’t get the support from the embassy or the State Department. They were not satisfied at all. So they were thanking me as a governor of a state of being the guy stepping up and filling the void. So just the fact that we’re doing this, to me, means they didn’t step into action. So as president, just like as governor, in these crisis situations, you got to get the job done. You can’t get mired in bureaucracy. You can’t make excuses. We know that there were a lot of Americans in Israel that needed to transport out. That should have been something that they got on immediately. They should not be charging people for it under these circumstances. And don’t dump them in Europe where they have nowhere else to go.

(10:27)
So I would’ve handled that totally different. Now, I would also change the Iranian policy. Their relieving of sanctions had a lot of money going to Iran for the last few years. That money goes into terrorism. That’s 6 billion I would take back from Qatar. Don’t let that be released to the Iranians. Ultimately, Hamas and Hezbollah are Iranian proxies. They would not be able to exist with the power that they have without the patronage of Iran. So I would snap that in a different direction. And then finally, you’re starting to see the administration. Biden put out a tweet today talking about a little bit, “Well, you got to be careful on this or that.” Look, Israel has a right to defend itself. They have a right to eliminate Hamas. They’re telling civilians to leave. Hamas is telling civilians to stay. Any casualties that result, that is on Hamas for putting those civilians and trying to use them as human shields.

Is there any red line you would draw with Israel and the rules of war?

Well, look, when you’re talking about a terrorist organization that butchered people, that were committing acts that were really the depths of depravity, even worse in some respects than what we were used to with Isis and Al-Qaeda, they have every right to eliminate Hamas’ entire infrastructure and entire membership. And that’s a significant task, but they should be able to accomplish that. And I’m sure they’ll be doing that in a way that’s mindful of anything else.

So in your eyes, no red line that you would draw at this moment?

I would support their judgment on defending their country.

And lastly, former President Trump, you’ve had his rhetoric recently, which you’ve responded to, but he has been touting what the world order was like, particularly in the Middle East, under his administration. Do you think there’s anything he should have done differently while he was in the White House that could have potentially changed things today?

Well, look, I think clearly things have deteriorated under Biden. I think we have some of the worst situations now that we’ve had in quite a number of years. So I would much prefer Trump’s approach to Biden’s approach 100%. Now, Donald Trump did also relieve sanctions on Iran oil, so they did get more money under him. I criticized that at the time. I was opposed to it. But if you look at the balance of things, clearly, Biden’s handled all this stuff much worse.

So why would you be better to handle this conflict than Trump if he has a track record of handling this well?

Well, I think I actually have a really good track record of handling crisis situations. If you look, we handled COVID in ways that have made the state the envy of the country. We’ve handled hurricanes, we’ve handled the Surfside tower collapse, and now this situation where you have a war halfway around the world and we’re springing into action rescuing people and bringing it back. So I get the job done when everything’s on the line. And that’s, I think, what people are looking for right now, leadership.

And just lastly, the most powerful story you heard this evening?

Well, I think it was from people where people were left behind, missing, deceased. These are big, significant wounds, and I got a little bit of a taste of that. We were down in South Florida last week doing some Iran sanctions with some of the Jewish community, and they were talking about some of the people they know. But to hear some of the people off the plane who were there, it does bring it home to you.

They’re people, not statistics.

Exactly. And they all have stories. And especially, I mentioned these kids, but that really stuck with me, the number of children that we’re rescuing. But these kibbutzes and stuff, these are big Jewish families. They’ve got a lot of kids. This is something that they really like. And the kids are playful, but these kids are having to dodge rockets. These kids are having terrorists come after them. Not the way this world should be.

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