GOP Congressman-Elect Seems to Accuse Ron DeSantis of Anti-Semitism: The Two Florida Politicians He’s Recently Attacked ‘Are Both Jewish’
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Representative-elect Randy Fine (R-FL) appeared to imply that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attacked him another Florida Republican because they’re Jewish.
Fine recently won a special election to take over the district previously held by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. Although the district has been a Republican stronghold in recent years, Fine won by just 14 points — the slimmest margin since 2018.
In response to Fine’s win, DeSantis claimed President Donald Trump “really had to bail him out” and that the race would have been even closer without Trump’s involvement. He even referred to Fine as a “squish” and said that he “repels” people.
Days later, he went after Florida Rep. Hillary Cassel when he called her a “liberal Democrat from down in South Florida.” Cassel switched parties and became a Republican after the 2024 election.
In a recent interview with The Floridian, Fine suggested it was more than a coincidence that DeSantis went after two Jewish Republicans.
“Well, I don’t understand the details with Rep. Cassel,” Fine said, “but what I will tell you is it’s dumb. I mean, Representative Cassel switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party; and so, obviously, she’s not going to be as conservative as everyone else. But do we want to be a niche party or do we want to be a big tent party? Now, you know, I mean, she switched because she’s Jewish and she didn’t like how Democrats did with Israel. Maybe that bothers Ron DeSantis. I don’t know, but I don’t understand why you would take a shot at someone who will have a hard enough time keeping that seat as a Republican. I don’t know why he wants to make it harder.
“I do find it troubling the two politicians in Florida that he has chosen to take issue with in a very vitriolic way in the last few weeks are both Jewish — and that’s a small number — so I don’t understand it.”
As noted by Fox News, the feud between Fine and DeSantis goes back to at least 2023 when Fine became the first Florida Republican to switch his presidential endorsement from DeSantis to Trump. Fine also called out the governor for what he considered to be an inadequate response to anti-Semitism in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
