DeSantis 'stands by' promise to 'slit throats' of federal bureaucrats

GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis doubled down on his promise to “slit the throats” of federal bureaucrats, saying that it was “colorful” language.

MSNBC’s Willie Geist pressed the Florida governor on remarks he made in August, in which he vowed to “start slitting throats on day one” of the “deep state” in government. Geist questioned DeSantis on whether he had “any regret” in using that language, pointing to the increasing number of threats against lawmakers and officials.

DeSantis responded that he did not regret it, saying that “people knew it was a figure of speech.” When Geist asked why DeSantis didn’t instead say he wanted to “fire” people in Washington, D.C., the Florida governor said he was “being colorful.”

“Well, because you're, you're being colorful at some of the stuff but you basically — you need to bring in serious accountability,” he told Geist Thursday on "Morning Joe." 

“So we do need an era of accountability,” he added. “Obviously, we're going to do that within the context of the rule of law in the Constitution. But I want to make very clear to voters that I'm not just going to go up there and be nice about it.”

DeSantis has repeatedly said he will downsize the federal government if elected to the White House, but Geist continued to push back on the presidential hopeful, arguing that the issue is the rhetoric he used rather than what he is advocating for.

“Don’t you think we should as a country and particularly political leaders turn down the temperature on things like that?” Geist asked DeSantis.

“Well, look, I stand by what I said,” DeSantis responded. “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.”

Over the past three years, the Capitol Police have opened up tens of thousands of cases into political threats made against lawmakers. More recently, a handful of lawmakers said the weeks-long Speakership battle in the House last month resulted in them receiving death threats over their votes.