Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday slammed rival GOP presidential contender Nikki Haley for flip-flopping on America taking in refugees from Gaza,
The governor’s rapid response team, DeSantis War Room, posted on X, formerly Twitter, several clips from interviews in which he denounced Haley for reversing course after several leading Republicans, including DeSantis, former President Donald Trump, and Rep. Matt Gaetz panned the idea of taking in Palestinians from the war-torn region.
On Tuesday, Haley told Fox News she had “always” agreed with DeSantis, who argued last week against accepting any refugees. “That’s the last thing we want, because we don’t know who they are,” the former U.N. ambassador said about taking in Gazans.
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Haley also said America should reject the idea because the refugees cannot be adequately vetted, the same reason that Egypt has also said no.
Yet just on Sunday, Haley had criticized DeSantis for his hardline stance.
“There are so many of these people who want to be free from this terrorist rule. They want to be free from all of that. And America has always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists — and that’s what we have to do.”
DeSantis’ team also posted clips of his explanation and his critique of Haley for changing course.
The governor argued in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham that America does not need to import the “pathologies” of the Hamas terrorists who rule Gaza.
“When you’re importing them in from cultures that are different from ours in ways that may clash with our values — that’s not strengthening the United States.” “Clearly when you’re talking about bringing in hundreds of thousands of people from Gaza — that is not benefitting the United States of America. That would increase anti-Jewish sentiment in America.”
Asked about Haley’s comments on Tuesday, DeSantis replied, “Why would she be talking about that we can vet these people if she wasn’t saying they can come to this country? … So she changed her tune.”
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DeSantis added that “corporate Republicans” and “open borders types” such as Haley “think that anyone should just be able to come in and they claim somehow we’re going to vet people from all over the world. You just can’t do that. That’s not the way it works.”
In another interview, DeSantis told journalist Megyn Kelly he was glad Haley “flipped,” but asked why was she talking about vetting Palestinians unless she supported importing them.
“Clearly, that’s what she was indicating. She got a lot of blowback because it’s an untenable position. And so now she’s changed,” he said.
DeSantis said Haley’s reversal was “welcome,” but her initial position illustrated her willingness to “cater to elite opinion.”
“The other thing is, I do think she’s still suffering under the illusions — which should have been wiped away after dealing with Iraq and Afghanistan — that somehow people in that part of the world just yearn to live in American style democracy and freedom. That is not what they’re after,” said DeSantis.
“The average person in Gaza that’s been taught to hate Jews, their view is they don’t necessarily want their own state. What they seek is the destruction of the Jewish state. And that is not limited to Hamas. That is a widespread, deeply embedded belief amongst Palestinian Arabs in the Gaza Strip.”
In still another interview, this time with Iowa political pundit Jeff Stein, DeSantis said, “Nikki Haley criticized me because she said somehow you can distinguish between a Hamas terrorist and somehow some Gaza ‘freedom lover’ — that is totally unacceptable.”
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