“Need to be defeated”: GOP Rep. Fine says Gaza should be “nuked” in response to DC shooting

Rep. Randy Fine called for dropping nuclear bombs on Gaza following the shooting of two Israeli staffers in Washington, D.C. 

During an interview with Fox News on Thursday morning, the Florida Republican called for the deployment of nuclear weapons on the 141-square-mile area that’s been under siege and constant aerial bombardment since Hamas militants attacked Israeli military installations on Oct. 7.

“In World War 2, we did not negotiate a surrender with the Nazis. We did not negotiate a surrender with the Japanese,” he said. “We nuked the Japanese twice in order to get unconditional surrender. That needs to be the same here.” 

Fine went on to say of Palestinians that “there is something deeply, deeply wrong with this culture and it needs to be defeated.”

The call for a nuclear strike is not far from Fine’s typical rhetoric on the Palestinian territories. Immediately after a gunman killed two Israeli staffers outside of the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C. on Wednesday, Fine said that there was “nothing peaceful” about pro-Palestinian protests and that “these demons must be put down by any means necessary.” In 2023, he wrote that he hoped the “streets of Gaza [would] overflow with the blood of these animals.”

 While Fine may be lurid in his bloody fantasies of genocide, he’s not alone in his glee over Palestinian suffering on his side of the aisle. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., told an activist last year that he hopes all Palestinians are killed.

“I think we should kill ’em all, if that makes you feel better,” Ogles said. “Hamas and the Palestinians have been attacking Israel for 20 years. It’s time to pay the piper.”

President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for the complete removal of Palestinians from Gaza and once shared an AI-generated video of a proposed Mediterranean resort in a cleared-out Gaza.

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump said in February. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site. Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings. Level it out.”