DeSantis Points to Media 'Lies' Inspiring Colorado's Molotov Cocktail-Wielding Anti-Semite

Gov. Ron DeSantis blamed President Joe Biden's immigration policies and media "lies" after eight people—including a Holocaust survivor—were wounded by Molotov cocktails chucked by an antisemitic Egyptian in the U.S. illegally.

DeSantis spoke at a Sarasota press conference Monday morning, where he condemned 45-year-old suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman for allegedly firebombing a Colorado demonstration calling for the release of Hamas-held hostages. He used makeshift Molotov cocktails and a flamethrower, reportedly shouting "Free Palestine" in the process.

The Egyptian national had entered the country on a tourist visa in 2022, though it expired over two years ago.

DeSantis claims Biden, along with the media's "lies", inspired and allowed the antisemitic attack to take place.

"I do think that there's a lot that goes on, quite frankly, in some of the lies that get spread in the media that probably get some of these guys wound up," DeSantis said. "This is the wages of having basically an open border for four years under the previous administration."

"[Soliman] should have never been here to begin with, and he sure as hell should have been sent home when this visa expired," he added.

This is only DeSantis's latest call to deport migrants in the country illegally, and comes on the heels of a massive federal raid on a Tallahassee construction site on Friday. It was Florida's largest single-day immigration raid, USA Today reported, resulting in 100 people being detained.

Florida is the only state requiring all 67 of its counties to partner with federal authorities to deport unauthorized immigrants. The move, which began in January, followed DeSantis's demand that the Sunshine State be in lockstep with President Donald Trump's hawkish stance against illegal immigration.

The Boulder attack has been loudly denounced across the board—though conservatives have been quick to herald it as a convergence of the dangers posed by illegal immigration and anti-Israel sentiment.

Soliman has been charged with eight felonies, including first-degree murder, despite police claiming no fatalities. He's accused of firebombing a Run for Their Lives group, wounding eight people, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor.

Run for Their Lives was formed to demand Hamas release the hostages taken on Oct. 7, 2023. Of the original 250 taken captive, 58 remain in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes 35 are dead.

The U.S. has faced skyrocketed levels of antisemitism since Hamas ambushed an Israeli music festival nearly two years ago. The war that ensued has resulted in devastating losses to Palestinian cities, and an over 300% spike in antisemitic incidents in the United States, the Anti-Defamation League reported.

This includes some college campus protests targeting Jewish students and the cold-blooded murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C.

Molotov cocktails are improvised fire bombs composed of a flammable liquid and a wick. They were first used by the Spanish, and soon after the Finnish, to ward off Soviet attacks in the late 1930s.