National President Everett Kelley at the American Federation of Government Employees is condemning Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis after the candidate for the Republican Party’s nomination for president in 2024 said he’d start cutting throats — using that language — in the federal bureaucracy on day one if elected.
The organization that Kelley leads is a national union of employees across the federal government and Washington, D.C., that represents some 750,000 individuals. Kelley argued that DeSantis was effectively disqualified from the position — as president — that he is seeking and connected the rhetoric from the governor to past violent comments and real-world incidents of violence like the attack on the Capitol in 2021. DeSantis said his intention was to “start slitting throats,” as the quote was relayed by the national union.
“Governor DeSantis’ threat to ‘start slitting throats’ of federal employees is dangerous, disgusting, disgraceful, and disqualifying,” Kelley said, in part. “Federal employees – over a third of whom are veterans now wearing their second uniform in service to their country – have dedicated their lives to serving their fellow Americans. They support our military, provide health care to our nation’s veterans, enforce our laws, safeguard our communities, deliver benefits to America’s most vulnerable citizens, keep our skies safe for air travel, protect human health and our environment, and much more.”
DeSantis, originally considered to have promising prospects in his campaign for the Republican Party’s general election nod, has sunk in polling from the race. He now often appears in polling results in the same range as candidates considered by observers to have slim chances. In the national average of polling that is maintained by the elections data and analysis site FiveThirtyEight, DeSantis has sunk to just above 14 percent of the total nationally, with Trump past a simple majority. Donald’s lead has effectively remained stable despite the multiple criminal cases, now also including charges related to his challenges to the last presidential election results, that he is facing.
Ron DeSantis must retract his threat to ‘start slitting throats’ of federal employees if he’s elected president.
No federal employee should face death threats from anyone, least of all from someone seeking to lead the U.S. government.
Full statement from @AFGEPrezKelley: pic.twitter.com/omEbzj4zkN
— AFGE (@AFGENational) August 3, 2023
