DeSantis campaigning last week promised (presumably metaphorical) blood will flow if he’s elected

Gov. Ron DeSantis, struggling in the Republican presidential primaries, is resorting to sanguinary rhetoric on the campaign trail, promising to execute drug smugglers and start “slitting throats” of federal bureaucrats.

DeSantis made the comments over the weekend during a campaign event in New Hampshire. Of drug cartel members caught at the border, he said, “they’re going to be shot stone-cold dead.”

He added: “We’re going to have all these deep-state people, you know, we’re going to be slitting throats on Day One.”

New Hampshire Public Radio and other news organization reported those remarks.

They echoed a statement DeSantis made last month regarding Pentagon staffing, according to The Hill.

“I think the idea that you take a flag [officer] or general officer who recently retired and put them as the secretary of defense, I think it is a mistake,” he said at the time.

“You know, they may have to slit some throats, and it’s a lot harder to do that if these are people that you’ve trained with in the past or that, you know, so we’re going to have somebody out there, you know, be very firm, very strong, but they are going to make sure that we have the best people in the best positions and there’s not going to be necessarily prior relationships that would cloud that judgment.”

‘Fake tough guy bravado’

Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried responded on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter: “Luckily for the nation, there will NEVER be a Day 1.”

“Americans need real solutions to the real issues they’re facing, not fake tough guy bravado that is clearly meant to appeal to the same right-wing extremists who helped incite an insurrection against our nation,” Anders Croy, spokesperson for the progressive organization DeSantis Watch, told the Phoenix by email.

“These are the cries for attention of a failing candidate who is terrified of having to end his cross-country private jet tour and actually having to come home to fix the affordability crisis he created by focusing his entire economic agenda on the billionaires and corporate elites who fund his political ambitions.”

The latest Real Clear Politics polling average showed DeSantis far behind former President Donald Trump, who was due for his arraignment Thursday in federal court in Washington, D.C., on charges arising from his efforts to interfere with certification of Joe Biden’s election as president. Trump had 53.9% support to 18.1% for DeSantis.

The DeSantis-alligned Never Back Down PAC raised $131 million during the first six months of 2013, Bloomberg reported, easing the sting from money woes in the formal DeSantis campaign that forced layoffs of about one-third of its staff.

Union president responds

American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley released a written statement Thursday afternoon:

“Gov. DeSantis’ threat to ‘start slitting throats’ of federal employees is dangerous, disgusting, disgraceful, and disqualifying,” he said.

“Federal employees — over a third of whom are veterans now wearing their second uniform in service to their country — have dedicated their lives to serving their fellow Americans. They support our military, provide health care to our nation’s veterans, enforce our laws, safeguard our communities, deliver benefits to America’s most vulnerable citizens, keep our skies safe for air travel, protect human health and our environment, and much more.

“These public servants deserve respect and commendation from our nation’s leaders. No federal employee should face death threats from anyone, least of all from someone seeking to lead the U.S. government. Gov. DeSantis must retract his irresponsible statement.

“We’ve seen too often in recent years — from the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 to the sacking of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 — that violent anti-government rhetoric from politicians has deadly consequences. Any candidate who positions themselves within that shameful tradition has no place in public office.”

Update: This story has been updated to include a statement from American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley