Ron DeSantis is receiving pushback from Israeli diplomats, Florida Democrats and the White House after he falsely claimed credit for a gun-running operation to assist Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
The Florida governor and 2024 presidential hopeful declared on Thursday that he had worked with Israel’s consul general in Miami to send military equipment, including drones, body armor and helmets.
His office, according to Reuters, said it had worked to “get weapons and ammunition to Israel through private parties” as part of his high-profile “rescue operation”. The operation involved sending humanitarian supplies on chartered planes and returning from Israel hundreds of US citizens who wanted to come home following the Hamas attacks.
His boast, however, started to unravel when Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, Israel’s consul general, told the news agency he had not asked for DeSantis’s help, and that the governor’s involvement was limited to smoothing paperwork requirements for a previously arranged shipment of “rifle parts” ordered by his government.
Why does the governor of Florida have a stockpile of weapons? Why can a governor send shipments of weapons to another country without going through the federal government? This guy may have just outed himself as violating serious laws.
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Understanding any response would be extremely complex it’s clear there are some states that are actively flaunting disobedience to the clearly defined lines separating federal and state mandates.
The feds need to ratchet down on this shit but at the same time when the Republicans win the presidency or Senate again it will simply embolden them further where new precedents have been set.