DeSantis Says He Would Consider Drone Strikes To Fight Mexican Cartels

GOP presidential hopeful and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday told a voter that if he was elected to the White House, he would consider using drone strikes to combat Mexican drug cartels.

"We will absolutely reserve the right if they’re invading our country and killing our people," DeSantis responded to a voter's question at a restaurant event attended by about 150 voters.

Later, NBC News asked DeSantis to clarify what he said.

"I said I would use whatever force we need to defend the country," DeSantis said.

"We’d be willing to lean in against them, and we reserve the right to defend our country," he added.

DeSantis has emphasized before that he supports the use of "deadly force" against migrants who may be suspected of trafficking drugs.

"We’re authorizing deadly force. They try to break into our country? They will end up stone-cold dead," DeSantis said, prompting audience applause.

In a recent interview with NBC, DeSantis discussed how migrants smuggling drugs into the states would be identified versus those who are not.

"Same way a police officer would know," he said. "Same way somebody operating in Iraq would know. You know, these people in Iraq at the time, they all looked the same. You didn’t know who had a bomb strapped to them. So those guys have to make judgments."

The Sunshine States governor has labeled himself as a tough on immigration candidate as he has pledged to end birthright citizenship and famously sent a flight of migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard.

The U.S. have never used drone strikes on Mexico, but did recently use them this spring in retaliation of a deadly Iranian attack and have used them in the past in Afghanistan.