Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday slammed Democrats for accusing him of condoning antisemitism, following the footage of neo-Nazis at an Orlando overpass.
"These Democrats, are trying to use this as some type of political issue to try to try to smear me, as if I had something to do with it."
"We're not playing their game," he said.
"Some jackasses doing this on the street...state law is going to hold them accountable, because they were doing stuff on the overpass. So [law enforcement is] absolutely going to do that and they should do that."
Nevertheless, DeSantis said he would not allow members of “a political party that has elevated antisemites to the halls of congress, like Ilhan Omar, that have played footsie with the BDS movement, that even have people in their party that have cavorted with Farrakhan,” to smear him.
“No,” he said, pointing to “our record in Florida and what we've done - signed the strongest antisemitism bill in the country - we've stared down companies that indulged in BDS, like Airbnb, and we've won.”
“We've provided record funding for Jewish day schools, and we've had the strongest relationship between Florida and Israel that we've ever had in terms of education, business, all these tremendous things that have have happened since our state visit in 2019.
“Why would they want to elevate a half dozen malcontents to try to make this an issue for political gain?" DeSantis asked. "Because they want to distract from the failure we've seen with Biden,” whose policies Democrats have supported.
"That's what they're trying to avoid - being able to be held accountable for that,” he said.
DeSantis added that Florida, aside from Israel, is probably "the number 1 destination for Orthodox Jews to move to if you look over the last two years. Because we do it right, because we have provided tremendous support, and that's just what we're going to continue to do in the state of Florida."