Ron DeSantis Misrepresents Nikki Haley’s Comments on Gaza Refugees

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, along with his presidential campaign and a super PAC supporting him, have been inaccurately portraying a comment made by Republican rival Nikki Haley regarding the people of Gaza. They claim that Haley advocated for the US to take in refugees from Gaza, which is not true.

The DeSantis camp has been sharing a video clip of Haley’s remarks on CNN and asserting that she supports “bringing Gaza refugees to America.” Additionally, DeSantis himself posted a video responding to what his campaign falsely claimed was Haley wanting to import Gazan refugees to the US. DeSantis even mentioned in a Fox interview that Haley had spoken about bringing people from Gaza to the US during her CNN appearance.

However, all of these claims are completely wrong.

In reality, Haley opposes the US accepting refugees from Gaza, and she did not say on CNN that the US should take in these refugees. DeSantis and his allies have been misrepresenting Haley’s response to a question that was not even about US refugee policy toward Gaza.

During the CNN interview, Haley was asked about DeSantis’ statement that while not all Gazans are part of Hamas, they are all antisemitic and none of them believes Israel has the right to exist. In her response, Haley expressed that many Gazans do not want to be ruled by Hamas and that the US should continue to distinguish between terrorists and civilians. Haley did not suggest taking in Gaza civilians as refugees, and she has since firmly opposed the US accepting refugees from Gaza, arguing that Middle Eastern countries sympathetic to Hamas should take them in instead.

It is important to note that the exchange between Tapper and Haley was not about whether the US should accept refugees from Gaza.

To provide more context, Tapper mentioned the high proportion of children in Gaza and asked Haley if she thinks more should be done to help innocent Palestinian civilians. Haley acknowledged the importance of caring for Palestinian citizens, especially innocent ones, but then shifted the focus to Arab countries. She questioned why countries like Qatar, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, which receive significant aid from the US, do not open their gates to Palestinians. Haley suggested that these countries might be hesitant to take in Palestinians due to the inability to vet them and their reluctance to have Hamas in their neighborhoods.

Tapper then played a clip of DeSantis’ comments about Gazans’ beliefs and asked Haley for her response. Nowhere in her response did Haley mention taking in Gazans as refugees.

Despite this clear misrepresentation by the DeSantis camp, they have been emphasizing Haley’s comment about separating civilians from terrorists. DeSantis claims that since Haley spoke about vetting people, she must be referring to bringing refugees to the US. However, Haley was referring to how Middle Eastern countries cannot effectively vet refugees from Gaza. It is unfounded to suggest that Haley was discussing refugees when she was actually emphasizing the need to distinguish terrorists from Hamas-opposing civilians.

There could be various reasons, other than refugee policy, for understanding the beliefs of Gaza’s population. For example, their views on Hamas could impact the control of Hamas over Gaza, influence decisions about humanitarian aid, and affect positions on Israel’s military actions.

In a misleading television ad from the pro-DeSantis super PAC, a single question mark is placed over video footage of Haley’s remarks, implying uncertainty about her stance on Gaza refugees. However, this ad fails to acknowledge that Haley never mentioned the US taking in refugees.

It is important to clarify the truth behind these misrepresented comments by Haley. The spokesperson for the super PAC has continued to argue that Haley’s comment about separating civilians from terrorists was about refugees. They also criticized Haley’s past positions on US refugee policy.