AVENTURA, FL—After Hamas supporters defaced Union Station in Washington, D.C, pulling down three American flags flying over the busy train station—burning one in the process—and erecting Palestinian flags in their place, Governor Ron DeSantis excoriated both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for refusing to attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to a joint session of Congress simply because they wanted to appease the "Hamas caucus" of their political party.
DeSantis said that Biden and Harris, cave to the far-left depiction of Netanyahu as a "boogeyman". "That's not leadership," DeSantis said, before setting his sights on Harris, who recently came under fire for attending a pre-scheduled sorority event instead of Netanyahu's congressional address, though she's scheduled to meet with him later today.
"You have the leader of one of our strongest allies in my whole lifetime speaking in front of Congress, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and yet Kamala can't go there and greet him. It's not a way to treat an ally," DeSantis said. "She had no interest—she has not condemned what happened at Union Station, the graffiti and the rioting and all the vile activity."
.@GovRonDeSantis says Biden and Harris appeased "Hamas Caucus" when they shunned @netanyahu
"They are not friends to the state of Israel, and they are not friends of the Jewish people."
READ MORE: https://t.co/zEP2J53YFp#FlPol #FlaPol #israel
cc: @Algemeiner… pic.twitter.com/BjAGFVEV98
— The Floridian (@Floridianpress) July 25, 2024
Biden and Harris, he continued, "Are not friends to the state of Israel, and they are not friends of the Jewish people....Why is Harris silent? Because she has to appeal to the Hamas Caucus in her own party to be able to win the election."
Florida's Democratic congressional members were quick to join their Republican counterparts in condemning D.C.'s Hamas supporters, though it remains to be seen what Biden's and Harris's response will be.
"You do not have a right to write death to America on a public statue with spray paint. You don't have a right to scribble Hamas on public buildings. You don't have a right to take...our American flag down and desecrate it, and then put up a Hamas flag," DeSantis said, stressing that this would not "have flown in Florida".
He then highlighted two recently passed Florida laws designed to take on antisemitism—one defining it in statute and another funding and protecting Jewish day schools—after Hamas' surprise massacre at an Israeli musical festival on October 7th led to an over 300 percent spike in antisemitic incidents nationwide.
"You will be held accountable in the state of Florida," DeSantis said at an Aventura press conference before daring protesters to see what happens if they come to the Sunshine State. "You're not taking over our streets, you're not defacing our buildings, and you are not going to take over our public universities. And if you try, go ahead: make my day."
Thousands of Hamas supporters flocked to D.C. during Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's address to Congress, hoping to protest the leader's so-called "genocide" against the Palestinian people. To show their discontent, they spray-painted, graffitied, and sharpied onto the Freedom Bell outside Union Station and a nearby Christopher Columbus monument.
They tagged the monuments and other Union Station property with things like, "Hamas is Coming", "Fuck Israel", "Free Palestine," and "All Zionists are bastards."
According to the Washington Post, 23 were arrested as Capitol Police pepper sprayed the swarming crowd.
The Floridian posted a video of Congressman Byron Donalds (R) calling the Biden administrations boycott of Netanyahu's address as antisemitic. The video has received over 1 million views since it posted less than 48 hours ago.
