Ron DeSantis compared to murderous warlord in scathing column: 'Genghis Khan of social issues'
Khan’s many wars are estimated to have killed roughly 40 million people, according to Encyclopedia Britannica
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was compared to Genghis Khan, a murderous Mongol warlord, in an op-ed from Thursday that also labeled him as just "as dangerous to democracy" as former President Donald Trump.
In a Vanity Fair column headlined "Ron DeSantis shouldn’t be covered like just another Republican," left-wing writer Molly Jong-Fast launched a series of attacks on the governor.
She argued that DeSantis is more than just a "culture warrior."
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"He is the Genghis Khan of social issues, using every opportunity to target and demonize groups that have already been targeted and demonized throughout history," Jong-Fast claimed.
Genghis Khan’s many wars are estimated to have killed roughly 40 million people, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. (In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images)
Some users on Twitter mocked Jong-Fast for comparing DeSantis, an American politician, to Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire. Khan’s wars are estimated to have killed roughly 40 million people, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
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"DeSantis is more of a Genghis Khan mixed with Pol Pot rolled up in Stalin and [multiplied] by Hitler," Grabien founder Tom Elliott sarcastically tweeted on Thursday.
Jong-Fast, who has over one million followers on Twitter, also argued that DeSantis was an oppressor in "classic authoritarian" style because he opposed, among other things, critical race theory (CRT) in Florida universities.
DeSantis announced in January that the state would slash funding to all CRT and diversity, equity and inclusion programs in state colleges because education should be "grounded in actual history, the actual philosophy that has shaped western civilization," he said in a press conference at the time.
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"He is the Genghis Khan of social issues," one liberal columnist said of DeSantis. (Octavio Jones/Getty Images)
Jong-Fast similarly targeted former President Donald Trump in her verbal onslaught, calling him the "poor man’s DeSantis."
But she urged readers to take both leaders seriously, saying that "DeSantis is as dangerous as Trump—if not more."
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DeSantis has yet to declare his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, as Jong-Fast acknowledged, but some late night comedians have focused on the growing tensions between DeSantis and Trump.
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Late night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel reacted Tuesday to a New York Times report that Trump has called DeSantis "Meatball Ron" in private. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Late night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel reacted Tuesday to a New York Times report that Trump has called DeSantis "Meatball Ron" in private.
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Jong-Fast was adamant that Trump and DeSantis were both "cut from the same autocratic cloth."
"They are not the kind of leaders that we’re accustomed to seeing in a democracy," she emphasized.