Ron, Casey DeSantis visit 9/11 Memorial, connect attacks to immigration policies

Gov. Ron DeSantis observed the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on Monday by attending the ceremony at the memorial in New York and asserting that the attack on the World Trade Center was at heart a result of immigration policies.

Neither the Governor’s office nor his campaign issued any notice of his appearance at the site, but a Getty Images photographer captured him meeting with attendees with his wife, Casey. First Lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were also in attendance, according to a report by the Daily Mail in the U.K.

The Governor did issue a statement on X, formerly Twitter: “Twenty-two years ago, nineteen terrorists took 2,977 innocent lives in the deadliest attack against America in our history.”

The Washington Examiner published remarks from an interview in which Florida’s Governor linked one of his central policy and political enthusiasms — immigration — with that event.

“9/11 was in part an immigration issue,” DeSantis told the newspaper. “A lot of these guys should not have been in the country — had overstayed visas and whatnot.”

Border crossings by asylum-seekers “has made us more vulnerable to a terrorist attack,” he added.

“I think that there is a good bet that somebody that’s come across that [southern] border will commit an act of terrorism.”

The DeSantis War Room X account, affiliated with the Governor, linked to the Examiner story.

Football

The commemoration followed a weekend DeSantis spent partly in Iowa, where he attended the University of Iowa and Iowa State University football game. The Des Moines Register reported that DeSantis observed that in-state rivalry was “probably a bit more civilized than the Florida-Georgia game down in Jacksonville, which is good.”

But his remarks fit a pattern of side-eying his home state in attempting to sell himself to early primary voters and caucusgoers, as when he told an audience in Sioux City that “Florida is the Iowa of the Southeast” and another one in Ohio: “I can stand here representing Ohio values because the two most important women in my life” — his mother and wife — respectively hailed from Youngstown and Troy in that state.

DeSantis himself grew up in Dunedin.

Donald Trump also attended the game, where he and DeSantis attracted both cheers and jeers, according to published accounts including this one from The New York Times.

The Iowa Capital-Dispatch — like the Phoenix a member of the nonprofit States Newsroom network — reported about an Iowa State University/Civiqs poll suggesting that 51% of Republican and independent poll respondents planning to attend the Jan. 15, 2024, Iowa Republican Caucuses listed Trump is their top choice for the contest.

DeSantis lagged far behind at 14%, followed by former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley at 10% and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy with 9% as top picks of GOP caucusgoers.

One state over, in South Dakota, that state’s governor, Kristi Noem, endorsed Trump during a party event Friday marked by boos for state congressional delegation members who were no-shows, the South Dakota Searchlight, another States Newsroom member, reported.

During a two-hour speech, Trump didn’t mention talk that he might pick Noem as a running mate but did praise her as “one of the most successful Governors in the nation” and said her endorsement “means a lot.”

“Kristi, I’m truly honored to receive your endorsement,” Trump said. “Very much so. I appreciate it.”

DeSantis vs. Newsom

Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he fears DeSantis’ “authoritarian” tendencies. Newsom, a Democrat, and DeSantis frequently attack each other over their differing approaches to governing and especially COVID prevention.

“I’ve made the point about DeSantis that I think he’s functionally authoritarian. I’m worried more, in many respects, about Trumpism, which transcends well beyond his term and time in tenure,” Newsom said.

“I worry about democracy,” he said. “I worry about the fetishness for autocracy that we’re seeing not just from Trump, but around the world, and notably across this country,” Newsom added.

Newsom and DeSantis have agreed to a televised debate this fall, but the arrangements are still being worked out.

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Michael Moline reporting. Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Diane Rado for questions: [email protected]. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.