Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) stood by his call to ban pro-Palestinian groups from college campuses.
In an interview with NBC News's Meet the Press, DeSantis denied primary opponent Vivek Ramaswamy's claim that his call to ban the groups constituted cancel culture and a suppression of free speech rights. The Florida governor argued that the groups had declared themselves a part of Hamas, so the matter became one of security.
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"This is not canceled culture," he said. "This group — they themselves said in the aftermath of the Hamas attack that they don't just stand in solidarity, that they are part of this Hamas movement, and so you have a right to go out and demonstrate, but you can't provide material support to terrorism. They've linked themselves to Hamas. And so we absolutely decertified them; they should not get one red cent of taxpayer dollars."
DeSantis continued by saying that his call to ban the group from college campuses was not a First Amendment issue and was rather
a "material support to terrorism issue."
WATCH: @RonDesantis called for the ban of a pro-Palestinian group from state colleges. Vivek Ramaswamy says that's akin to cancel culture.
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) October 29, 2023
DeSantis: "Are we just going to commit suicide as a country and let groups metastasize who are openly siding with terrorist organizations?" pic.twitter.com/d3iPdCbL26
When the interviewer asked for evidence for the claim that pro-Palestinian groups were giving material support to Hamas, DeSantis said that they had declared themselves part of the terror group "in their own words."
"Their own words are saying they're part of this organization, that they don't just stand in solidarity, that they don't just support what they did, but that this is their movement too, so once you hitch your wagon to a group like Hamas, that takes you out of the realm of normal activity, and that's something that we're going to take action against. So we believe we're totally justified within the law," he said.
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The Florida Republican said that the issue illustrated a wider point and that allowing pro-Palestinian groups to operate unchallenged would be detrimental to the United States.
"I think things like this have been litigated time and again, but here's the broader point — you know, are we just gonna commit suicide as a country and let groups metastasize who are openly siding with brutal terrorist organizations? I don't think that's a recipe for a successful country," he added. "I want to have a country where we're protected from that stuff. So I think we made the right decision. I stand by it 100%."