A new, tough-talking Ron DeSantis revisited New Hampshire this week where the Florida governor and his trimmed-down campaign stuck to their strategy of focusing exclusively on early primary states. However, the struggling candidate used some noticeably stronger rhetoric this time around.
While speaking at a barbecue for local Republicans, DeSantis tried out to out-strongman Donald Trump by making bombastic, if not outright violent promises that sounded awfully similar to the former president’s past desire to shoot migrants crossing the border. Not to mention the time Trump encouraged his supporters to literally attack Congress for which he’s currently being indicted.
Via New Hampshire Public Radio (which has an audio clip):
“We’re going to ensure the woke agenda ends up in the dustbin of history,” DeSantis said Sunday.
Throughout his trip to New Hampshire, he appeared bent on demonstrating that no candidate talks tougher. He promised that, under his presidency, Mexican drug cartels would be “shot stone cold dead,” and vowed that when it comes to federal bureaucrats, “we are going to start slitting throats on Day One.”
Considering it was a predominantly GOP event, DeSantis’ talk didn’t entirely rankle the crowd who has grown accustomed to their party’s rapid descent into fascist rhetoric. However, NHPR reports that some Republicans in attendance were not buying DeSantis’ tough guy schtick, and more importantly, they also had serious doubts about how well it would play on the national stage.
“If I was in charge of his PR, I would have said, ‘Don’t use that terminology,’” a New Hampshire primary voter said about DeSantis’ newfound penchant for “slitting throats.”