DeSantis, Trump blame Biden for dealing with Iran after Hamas' attack on Israel

CEDAR RAPIDS — Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blamed President Joe Biden and his administration after Hamas militants launched the deadliest attack in decades on Israel, citing a $6 billion transfer to Iran that administration officials insisted had yet to be spent.

DeSantis and Trump, who are running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, both stopped in Cedar Rapids over the weekend.

.@RonDeSantis: “The terrorist attacks that we have seen & in many cases may still even be ongoing are barbaric. They have no place in a civilized world. And Israel not only has the right they have the responsibility to defend themselves & their people, & we need to support that.” pic.twitter.com/x8B3AipXkx

— Tom Barton (@tjbarton83) October 8, 2023

Trump delivered a speech to about 2,000 people Saturday at the DoubleTree by Hilton Cedar Rapids Convention Complex in downtown Cedar Rapids. DeSantis spoke Sunday to a crowd of a few hundred supporters at Refuge City Church in Cedar Rapids as a guest for a meet-and-greet organized by Never Back Down, the super PAC backing him for the GOP nomination.

Both criticized a deal announced by the Biden administration in August to release five U.S. citizens detained in Iran in exchange for Tehran gaining access to roughly $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets and the United States freeing several jailed Iranians.

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Although Hamas is a Sunni Muslim group, it has a militant wing that long has nurtured close ties with Iran, a source of funding and a Shiite powerhouse.

Trump said that recent attacks on Israel by Hamas are a result of the United States unfreezing the Iranian assets in the prisoner swap, and a result of the nation being seen as "weak“ on the global stage.

"I predicted war in Israel immediately after it was announced that Joe Biden gave $6 billion to Iran," Trump said Saturday. “At this time, Israel and the United States need a very strong partnership and leadership,” claiming Biden “betrayed Israel” by “restoring hundreds of millions of dollars to the very corrupt Palestinian entities.”

The Biden administration says the $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets can be used only for humanitarian purposes, that the United States will have oversight and there is no evidence money has left the Qatari account.

Trump did not specify how the administration was supporting “corrupt Palestinian entities,” but might have been alluding to Biden restarting humanitarian aid to Palestine, including $235 million primarily in aid to refugees, after Trump canceled the assistance program three years earlier.

Trump also asserted his administration brought peace to the Middle East through the Abraham Accords, a U.S.-mediated bilateral agreement signed by Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in September 2020 to recognize Israel’s sovereignty.

Biden on Saturday decried the “unconscionable” assault and pledged to ensure Israel has “what it needs to defend itself” after the attack. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a carrier strike group to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean to be ready to assist Israel.

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DeSantis on Sunday said “we need to stop this charade that we can be friends with a regime that wants this country's destruction,” claiming the Biden administration and others “have made deliberate efforts to coddle the Iranian regime.”

“So stop with sanctions relief, turn the screws on the Iranians. We shouldn't want them getting any cash flowing into this regime,” he said.

DeSantis also highlighted the Biden administration’s plan to release the frozen Iranian funds as part of the prisoner swap deal, saying while those exact funds were not used by Hamas, that the money is "fungible“ and frees up other Iranian resources to fund terrorism.

Both he and Trump pledged strong support for the state of Israel.

“Israel is at war, and the United States has to support Israel,” Trump said.

DeSantis called the attacks “barbaric.”

“They have no place in a civilized world. And Israel not only has the right, they have the responsibility to defend themselves and their people, and we need to support that,” DeSantis told the crowd at Refuge City Church. “ … They can defend themselves, and they should defend themselves, and there’s no moral equivalency between the Israelis and Hamas terrorists.”

If elected, he said the United States will have “an ironclad” relationship with Israel that will be “good for our country and will be better for the Middle East.”

.@RonDeSantis: “When I'm president, we will have an ironclad US-Israel relationship. it'll be strong. it'll be good for our country and will be better for the Middle East.” pic.twitter.com/BVum2wC0i1

— Tom Barton (@tjbarton83) October 8, 2023

DeSantis was in Israel earlier this year, when he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of a worldwide trip just before officially announcing his presidential campaign.

“And it's important that we as Americans say to terrorists all around the world, you do not harm one hair on the head of an American citizen, or else you will have hell to pay,” DeSantis said. “We are not going to sit down and let this happen.”

.@RonDeSantis: “And it's important that we as Americans say to terrorists all around the world, you do not harm one hair on the head of an American citizen, or else you will have hell to pay.” pic.twitter.com/aai8b5b3mK

— Tom Barton (@tjbarton83) October 8, 2023

DeSantis on Sunday continued to slam Biden for having “slept through the attacks,” after the president, in a statement he made on Saturday, alluded to having calls on the unfolding situation in the Middle East at about “7:30, 8 o'clock” — eight hours after Hamas's bombardment of Israel began.

“If I were in the White House, I would have been up at 2 in the morning, and we would have been doing what we need to do to protect this country,” DeSantis said.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com