Ron DeSantis Gives Very Blunt Take On Iran: 'They've Been Waging Conflict Against The U.S. Since 1979'

Forbes Breaking News

At a press briefing, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) gave his take on the conflict with Iran.

Transcript

00:01All right.

00:02Yes.

00:03Can you comment on the bombing of Iran over the weekend and your position on that, obviously?

00:08Well, I was on Maria Bartiromo's show yesterday and was able to articulate my views on that.

00:15But I think that President Trump, from the time he came down the escalator in 2015 until

00:20the president, has been very consistent.

00:22He's also been correct that the policy of the United States is that Iran cannot have

00:27a nuclear weapon.

00:28And the reason why they can't have a nuclear weapon is, one, we just don't want to see

00:32nuclear profession generally, but, two, no country has been more hostile to the United States

00:38of America since 1979 than the Iranian mullahs have been.

00:43And that started with the hostage crisis in 79 and 80.

00:47It continued with the bombing of the Marine Corps Barretts in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983 that

00:53killed over 240 service members.

00:56You also saw it at the bombing of the Khobar Towers in 1996.

01:00And then when I was serving in Iraq as a junior officer, the majority of the casualties, both

01:06killed in action and wounded in action, at that time in the conflict, 2007 into 2008, were

01:13at the hands of Iranian-backed Shia militia.

01:16So they are responsible for maiming thousands of American service members and probably killing

01:21over a thousand U.S. service members.

01:24The terrorism you see in the Middle East, whether it's Houthis, whether it's Hezbollah, whether

01:30it's Hamas, that is all because of Iran.

01:33Iran funds terrorism around the world, and they're the world's leading state-sponsored terrorism.

01:38Third, Iran's ideology since 1979 and their ruling class with the Ayatollah and his other

01:47clerics.

01:48We rely on mutually assured destruction to ensure that someone's not going to launch a nuclear

01:54attack.

01:55I mean, during the Cold War, Soviets had enough nuclear missiles to wipe America off the map.

02:02We had more than enough to wipe them off the map.

02:04They knew if they fired one at us, we'd fire back, and then we'd both end up going in a

02:09cloud of smoke.

02:10So that deterred because it just wasn't worth doing.

02:13The problem with Iran is these are militant Shia Islamists.

02:18And so they have a very apocalyptic, radical ideology.

02:22So mutually assured destruction for them if they fire at Israel, and knowing Israel will

02:27fire back and do immense damage, or the United States.

02:31I don't know if they could reach the United States yet, but if they did that, because they

02:34do consider us the great Satan, they know that would be a lot of damage.

02:38But that may not be a deterrent for them.

02:40That may be an inducement to them.

02:42That may be furthering what they want to do.

02:44So I think people have recognized that them being able to acquire a nuclear weapon would

02:50be a unique challenge, not just for the region, but throughout the world.

02:55And no one's really been willing to fully do anything about it.

02:59And I think President Trump showed decisiveness to be able to act when he did.

03:05Now people say, well, what are they going to do to respond?

03:08And they may, right?

03:10I don't think they can respond effectively conventionally against U.S. forces.

03:14They just don't have the ability.

03:15But that's not typically how they operate.

03:17They operate through these proxy groups, through these militia groups, through Hezbollah, through

03:21all this stuff.

03:22Who knows who they sent across the southern border during Biden's administration?

03:27We don't know.

03:28But I just think it's important to point out, they've been waging conflict against the United

03:33States since 1979.

03:35They've really just been limited by their means.

03:38If they had more means, they would have done more.

03:41So I don't know that it's going to radically change certainly their capability.

03:46But their posture was hostile before this.

03:49And obviously, you know, it will be hostile since then.

03:51Now, for our part, when the IDF operations commenced against Iran and Iran started firing

03:58those ballistic missiles into Israel, we knew that that would impact residents of the state

04:03of Florida because we have college students who are studying abroad that are students at

04:07our state university system.

04:09We have families that go on vacation to Israel.

04:12We had church groups that were going over there.

04:14We had birthright Israel, people that were going to Israel for the first time in their lives.

04:18And we knew that they were in dire straits because Ben Gurion Airport was totally shut down.

04:25It didn't like you've got a lot of great options.

04:28It didn't like you're in Florida and you could just go to Georgia or go to South Carolina.

04:32It's like, you know, that that region is not the easiest region for folks.

04:36And so we knew there was going to be need.

04:38We had effectuated rescues on after October 7th, 2023, with Florida's Division of Emergency

04:45Management when the Hamas attacks occurred.

04:48And we were able to rescue a lot of people from there.

04:51We also rescued Floridians and Americans from instability in Haiti at the beginning of 2024.

04:56So this is just something that we do.

04:58And we kind of know how to do it from an emergency management perspective.

05:01This was more difficult than those other operations.

05:04We were able to get 1,500 out during the first week out of Israel.

05:09A lot of them ended up in Cyprus, voted to Cyprus.

05:12And then we've been running flights now from, well, from wherever.

05:17I mean, I don't even want to give the details.

05:19So we're just running flights.

05:21We're running flights to the U.S.

05:23So I was there to greet folks on either Thursday or Friday of last week.

05:28And, you know, you see somebody that's like 20 years old that thought they were just going to study some.

05:34I saw a big church group from North Florida.

05:37You know, they're going there to look at all the historic sites.

05:40And you can open the Bible.

05:41They can point to you.

05:42Like here's where David and Goliath.

05:44Here's you go to Bethlehem.

05:45You can go to all these places.

05:47And it's unlike anything you'll ever do from a perspective of not just faith,

05:55but just the incredible history of thousands of years.

05:59I mean, Florida, you know, our history, we, I mean, I kind of, I was doing the National Guard symposium

06:04and we joke with Massachusetts because they claim they have the earliest National Guard muster in 1636.

06:10I said, uh-uh-uh, St. Augustine, the Spanish, 1565.

06:14So Florida, we kind of got some decent history in terms of that.

06:18And yet that is not, that is chump change compared to over there.

06:21So this is like a really, really memorable and in some people life-changing experience to go over there.

06:28Then to have it interrupted with this where people don't really know where to turn,

06:32I think people were just genuinely appreciative that the state of Florida was there to help.

06:37So those operations are ongoing.

06:39We, of course, anticipate that there'll be more Iranian attacks in Israel.

06:45And sometimes what happens in these things is the response to a U.S. action will be just simply to take it out.

06:51on Israel.

06:52So that's something that we are contemplating.

06:54But the operations will continue.

06:56And I know that there was a little bit of a, not delay, but just during the Sabbath,

07:01some of the folks weren't traveling on Friday night and Sunday and Saturday into Saturday night.

07:07So those flights, though, will be continuous until we get people to safety.

07:13Regarding the budget and also-

07:14Regarding the budget and also-

07:15Regarding the budget and also-

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