Sometimes, when you make a living talking to people all day, you misspeak. It has happened to all of us from time to time. But if you misspeak, you immediately clean it up and, if necessary, apologize. But when you repeat the same claim repeatedly, it is clear that you may believe it. And there is one claim in particular that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis keeps repeating that has caused an international incident, yet he keeps repeating it.
Related: So, DeSantis Wants a Disney Prison, Let’s Give Him A Disney Prison
Earlier this year, Governor DeSantis threatened to build a prison on land adjacent to the Walt Disney World Resort. He also threatened that he would allow a competing theme park to build on that land as well. Ron DeSantis has since said he was only joking, but that was only after lawyers for the Walt Disney Company used his words against him in their Federal Court case.
But it appears that DeSantis has it out for Disney-related vacation destinations. Several times during his campaign, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has threatened to fire missiles into the Bahamas. He first made this claim in early November, but he said it yet again in New Hampshire on the day before Christmas. DeSantis said:
If someone was firing missiles from the Bahamas into like Fort Lauderdale, we would never accept that. We would flatten. Anything that happened. It would be done like literally within 12 hours, it would be done.
It is unclear why DeSantis keeps making these remarks or how flattening the island nation would help him secure the 2024 Republican Presidential Nomination. The Florida Governor is using the analogy of firing missiles into the Bahamas as a parallel to the Israel-Hamas War.
However, the Bahamian Press and government took the threat of rockets being fired at them seriously, and the United States Embassy in Nassau had to clarify that this was not the position of the U.S. Government.
A statement from the United States Embassy in Nassau to the Nassau Guardian said:
The Bahamas and the United States enjoy an enduring and unique partnership. Chargé D’affaires Usha Pitts regrets if DeSantis’ comments suggested anything other than a close alliance between our two democratic nations. The USS Leyte Gulf, a US navy cruiser currently in the Nassau Harbour, illustrates our strong mutual security relationship. We have been allies and friends for 50 years and are looking forward to the next 50.
DeSantis and Florida Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott toured the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian hit it in 2019. The Bahamas is about a 35-minute plane ride from Miami, Florida, just southeast of the city. Perhaps the proximity to the Sunshine State made DeSantis make this analogy for the second time at a campaign event, or, like he once loved Disney World enough to get married there, something happened in the Bahamas that soured his relationship with the tiny nation.
The Walt Disney Company owns Castaway Cay in the Bahamas, a cruise destination for Walt Disney Cruises. So, maybe this is a roundabout way of getting back at Disney?
But the people of the Bahamas should rest assured that the American diplomatic position is that the U.S. and Bahamas are two friendly democratic nations, and we will remain allies and friends.
We will continue to update this story at Disney Fanatic.
