During a press conference in Israel on Thursday, Ron DeSantis slammed a reporter who asked him about a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who said that DeSantis saw him being force-fed.
Former prisoner Mansoor Adayfi said that he saw a picture of DeSantis on Twitter and recognized his face from when he was in jail almost 20 years ago. DeSantis said this was not true.
“No. No. When asked if he had ever seen Al Qaeda fighters being made to eat, DeSantis replied, “No, not at all.” “That is not true. “This is nonsense.”
When the reporter said that a former prisoner said that DeSantis was there when he was force-fed, DeSantis quickly shot back at the reporter.
“Who said that to you? How would they recognize me? DeSantis gave an answer. “Okay, think about that. Do you really think that’s true? In 2006, I became a junior officer. Do you think they would have really known who I was? Of course not.”
“They’re just trying to get in the news because they know people like you will pay attention to it if it fits the story you’re trying to tell,” DeSantis said. “Pay close attention to the facts and stop caring about the story.”
DeSantis talked about the claim and said it was false when he met with British journalist Piers Morgan earlier this year.
Morgan: “One of the things they said was that you gave permission to force-feed people who were on a hunger strike.”
DeSantis said, “That’s not true,” as soon as he heard it. “I couldn’t give directions because I was a lower-ranking soldier. If someone was going to die, there might have been a boss who made sure they had food. But even if I had wanted to, I couldn’t have done that.”
When asked again if the story was false, DeSantis said, “Yeah, absolutely.”