DeSantis: U.S. would ‘flatten’ Bahamas if it attacked with missiles like Hamas does to Israel

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a New Hampshire town hall over the weekend that if a country like the Bahamas sent missiles into the U.S., America’s military would “flatten” them, making a comparison for what Israel should do to Hamas.

“Think about it from, like, America’s perspective,” DeSantis told a Manchester crowd. “If someone was firing missiles from the Bahamas into, like, Fort Lauderdale, we would never accept that. We would flatten – anything that happened – it would be done, like, literally within 12 hours.”

The governor said the U.S. wouldn’t ever “demand” its citizens lived under a constant threat of missile attacks, referencing Hamas’ repeated launching of rockets into Israel.

“That’s not even talking about the intrusion, and the invasion, and the terrorist attacks,” he said. “They’ve had to live under these circumstances.”

DeSantis made the comparison as Israel is fending off Hamas terrorist attacks, a war breaking out on Oct. 7, 2023.

Hamas has launched nearly 12,000 rockets into Israel in recent months, per the New York Times – the kind of behavior DeSantis argues America would “flatten” any given region over.

In October, after Hamas killed a slew of Israeli civilians in a terror attack, DeSantis called on Israel to “destroy” Hamas with no “half-measures.”

“Israel must destroy Hamas and its terrorist infrastructure,” he said. “Half-measures will just guarantee more attacks in the future.”

DeSantis referenced a video from nearly 10 years ago, when he was a congressman representing Florida, where he demanded a “complete defeat of Hamas.”

Shortly after the attacks, the governor said Hamas deserves a “swift and lethal response.”

“Israel not only has the right to defend itself against these attacks, it has a duty to respond with overwhelming force,” he said. “I stand with Israel. America must stand with Israel.”