Wednesday on FNC’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) responded to the Charlie Kirk “premeditated assassination” earlier in the day by blaming an “intolerance to opposing ideas.”
“The hostility that you’re seeing on these campuses — I mean, we joke about it because it’s sometimes it’s a little silly, but now it’s not silly,” host Jesse Watters said. “I mean, you never expect — you expect this in some rough neighborhoods in urban America, you don’t expect this in a college campus in Utah.”
DeSantis replied, “No, but I think it flows from this intolerance to opposing ideas. One of the things we’ve done in Florida is say students are going to be held accountable if they are interfering in a graduation ceremony or shouting down a speaker, because that’s not behavior that’s conducive to a free exchange of ideas, and so I think that’s very important.
“Now, this is obviously a premeditated assassination to try to snuff out an opposing viewpoint,” he continued. “So yes, this is the most extreme example we’ve ever seen, but the intolerance has been very real for a long time. And you know, that’s part of the reason, I think, why so many people respected Charlie, because he knew he was going into the lion’s den when he’s going on the campuses of these universities. He knew what he was in for. And yes, there are threats, he probably got threats almost every time he went. We’ve seen that happen in the past.”
“So his commitment to these principles, even when it’s not easy, is something that we should all really give credit for him,” DeSantis added.
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