Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was at Ground Zero Monday, used the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks to make divisive political claims about illegal immigration and the border with Mexico.
Breaking an unwritten rule to keep politics out of commemorating 9/11, the Republican presidential candidate blamed the worst terror attacks on U.S. soil on lax immigration enforcement.
“9/11 was in part an immigration issue,” he said. “A lot of these guys should not have been in the country — had overstayed visas and whatnot.”
DeSantis speculated that migrants crossing the southern border from Mexico might be a threat to commit future terror attacks.
“There is a good bet that somebody that’s come across that [southern] border will commit an act of terrorism,” he said.
Yuki Iwamura/AP
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is seen at the commemoration ceremony on the 22nd anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on Monday, Sept. 11, 2023, in New York.
DeSantis met with 9/11 families at Ground Zero during the 22nd anniversary of the worst terror attacks on U.S. soil.
The Republican presidential contender and his wife, Casey, were invited to the ceremony by seven families of 9/11 survivors.
He said the attacks taught all Americans the importance of vigilance against threats.
“We didn’t really have much of a care in the world,” before Sept. 11, 2001, DeSantis said in an interview with the Washington Examiner, a right-leaning newspaper. “(It was) a big dose of reality that it’s a dangerous world and that there are people that want to kill us.”
DeSantis has said he was inspired to join the Navy by the 9/11 terror attacks. He went on to serve as a JAG officer and did a tour in Iraq.
“I felt it was my obligation to serve. So I raised my hand,”
He is the only military veteran in the GOP presidential race, a significant selling point that DeSantis has sought to underline in recent ads.
Casey DeSantis brought a 9/11 victim’s son as one of her guests to the first Republican presidential debate.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Florida Governor and 2024 Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis speaks with people during the annual 9/11 Commemoration Ceremony at the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum on September 11, 2023 in New York City.
DeSantis was the only GOP presidential candidate to attend the Ground Zero ceremony, where he stood in the crowd with the family members who invited him.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff represented the White House. President Biden was expected to attend a commemoration later Monday in Alaska as he returns home from a trip to Vietnam.
Dave Goldiner
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