President Joe Biden has created a serious worldwide situation through his "fecklessness" and his "weakness that has caused these problems to mount," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, said Friday on Newsmax.
"I was struck with the speech," DeSantis told Newsmax's "National Report" about Biden's Oval Office address. "There is just a lack of overall strategic vision for what we're trying to do as Americans."
DeSantis noted that Biden did not mention many of the primary threats to the U.S., including China.
"He wasn't discussing the threats that are now in our own country due to his open border policy," said DeSantis.
Further, DeSantis said Biden was "trying to act like Ukraine and Israel are similar," but they have "different problems that require different approaches."
Ultimately, DeSantis said, "we need leadership," that Biden is not providing.
With Israel, Biden's actions are also concerning, as "he wants to send $100 million" in aid to the Gaza Strip, the governor said.
"That money will be commandeered by the Hamas terrorists," said DeSantis. "We know they run the show down there. Why would you want to be funding both sides of the conflict? He needs to let Israel do the job. Let them annihilate Hamas, and that has to be the first order of business. I don't think you can play both sides of this. It just isn't going to work."
Meanwhile, it is the "absolute responsibility" of Biden, as president, to work to obtain the freedom of American hostages being held by Hamas, said DeSantis.
"It's yet another reason why we shouldn't be sending any money that Hamas can get while they're holding our own people, hostage," he said, adding that Biden should demand that the hostages be returned, or "you'll have hell to pay."
Meanwhile, DeSantis said he thinks China is benefiting from what's happening in the Middle East and Ukraine, because now, "Biden is not fixated on China. In fact, he doesn't even view China as a serious threat. He thinks that this is kind of a friendly competition. That's not the case."
DeSantis said the U.S. has "inadequate power" in the Indo-Pacific region to deny China's ambitions in that region.
"There's a lot of issues in the world that we've got to deal with," said DeSantis. "Terrorism is still a fact. We didn't talk about it as much as maybe we did 10-15 years ago, but Israel shows that. You have the instability in Europe. You have problems in our hemisphere, but the only real global threat is that of a peer competitor. Ours is China, and I think Biden's helped China."
DeSantis also spoke out about the contention in the House, saying he'd vote for Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, as he thinks he's a solid conservative.
"So much of what they're doing in D.C. is theatrics, but it's not leading to any results," DeSantis said. "In Florida, we do the opposite. We don't do the theatrics. We don't do political empty calories. We just deliver results, and we delivered results on all these issues. In fact, I was the one bringing back people from Israel when Biden was not scrambling resources there."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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