DeSantis Stands By ‘Colorful’ Comments About ‘Slitting The Throats of Federal Bureaucrats’ When Pressed on Morning Joe

MSNBC’s Willie Geist confronted Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) on his rhetoric and whether he feels any responsibility to tamp down America’s heated political tensions.

The Republican presidential candidate joined Morning Joe on Thursday for a wide-ranging interview, where Geist turned the conversation to the anger and divisiveness pervading America’s social culture. After bringing up multiple examples of threats and political violence, Geist noted the recent speech in which DeSantis declared “we’re going to start slitting throats” of so-called “deep state people” in the American bureaucracy.

“I know you didn’t mean that literally,” Geist said, “but do you have any pause or any regret about using that rhetoric, given our political climate?”

This wasn’t the only time DeSantis has invoked this kind of violent imagery, but he offered Geist no regrets “because I think people knew it was a figure of speech.”

“Why not just say you’re gonna fire them?” Geist asked.

“Well, because you’re being colorful with some of the stuff,” said DeSantis. “But you basically — you need to bring in serious accountability.”

The governor went on to say “I’m not just going to go up there and be nice” about demanding accountability and restructuring the government. Geist countered by once again pointing to threats of political violence and asking “Don’t you think we should as a country — and particularly political leaders — turn down the temperature on things like that?”

“I stand by what I said,” DeSantis answered. “I don’t think anyone could reasonably have taken that and acted like I’m somehow advocating anything other than robust political process and robust political accountability. At the same time, we have divisions in the country. I think that’s natural. We’re a big, diverse country, but what I try to do is focus on the substance.”

DeSantis concluded by insisting, “You can fight the fights and I’m going to fight the fights very hard, but I also don’t want to make enemies unnecessarily. I want people to work together when we can.” Geist turned to his Morning Joe colleagues, however, and reacted “The problem is we’ve seen that when political leadership says things like that, there are people out there who take those signals literally, and not figuratively as they’re intended.”

Watch above via MSNBC.