DeSantis fumes over former Guantanamo detainee’s torture claims: ‘Totally BS’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) lashed out on Thursday over a former Guantanamo Bay detainee’s claim that the former naval officer oversaw his force-feeding at the prison.
“No, no, all that’s BS,” DeSantis told reporters at a press conference in Jerusalem. “No, totally, totally BS.”
“How would they know me?” he continued, his voice rising. “OK, think about that. Do you honestly believe that’s credible? So, this is 2006. I’m a junior officer. Do you honestly think that they would have remembered me from Adam? Of course not.”
“They’re just trying to get into the news because they know people like you will consume it because it fits your preordained narrative that you’re trying to spin,” DeSantis added. “Focus on the facts and stop worrying about narrative.”
Mansoor Adayfi, a former Guantanamo detainee, alleged in an Al-Jazeera op-ed earlier this month that DeSantis was present when he was force-fed during an effort to break a hunger strike at the prison. Many international groups have said force-feeding amounts to torture.
“As I tried to break free, I noticed DeSantis’s handsome face among the crowd at the other side of the chain link. He was watching me struggle. He was smiling and laughing with other officers as I screamed in pain,” Adayfi said in the op-ed.
“As far as I know, DeSantis did not order my hunger strike to be violently broken or wrote the policies that allowed it to happen,” he added. “He was just a guy who claimed he was there to help us and then just watched while we were being tortured. He did not torture me, but he sure seemed to take joy from it.”
DeSantis was stationed at Guantanamo Bay in 2006 but has denied Adayfi’s allegations, claiming he “didn’t have authority to authorize anything.”
After the Florida governor’s outburst on Thursday, Adayfi tweeted, “Oh, habibi Ron DeSantis, don’t be upset! I would like to invite you for a cup of coffee or Ensure,” referring to the liquid nutrient he claims he was force-fed at the prison.