Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ripped New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Tuesday for suggesting at a rally earlier this month that Empire State conservatives should take a hike.
“You have the governor of New York saying all Republicans need to get on a bus and leave the state and come to Florida,” DeSantis said at an unrelated press conference.
“Who would say something so ridiculous? To say if you don’t agree with me then you don’t even have a right to be here.”
Hochul raised eyebrows for saying her conservative nemeses — including former President Donald Trump, gubernatorial opponent Lee Zeldin and Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro — have no place in her state.
“Trump and Zeldin and Molinaro – just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong. OK? Get out of town. Because you don’t represent our values,” Hochul said. “You’re not New Yorkers.”
Warning of a growing intolerance towards conservatives, DeSantis also called out recent comments from federal officials.
“And now you have Biden,” he said. “He’s going to say… the majority of the country that opposes his policies are somehow semi-fascist.”
The Floridian made the statements while ripping the planned enlargement of the Internal Revenue Service.
DeSantis said the bolstered agency would be used to target political opponents — and that sharpening anti-Republican rhetoric suggests that it will be “weaponized” to punish rivals.
“They go after people they don’t like,” he said. “That’s unfortunately where we are in this country.”
DeSantis, considered a potential 2024 Republican presidential nominee frontrunner, has routinely jousted with several Democratic Party leaders in the past few months, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom.