Warren rips DeSantis over flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard: ‘He has reached a new low’

Leading progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) slammed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) Thursday for sending two plane loads of Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, the picturesque island off the coast of Massachusetts where U.S. presidents often vacation.  

Warren took a shot for treating the migrants, who were dropped off on the island without advance notice to local authorities, like props in a political stunt.  

“It is cruel to treat human beings like pawns in a political game. He has reached a new low,” Warren said of DeSantis.  

She also ripped DeSantis in a tweet sent earlier Thursday.  

“Exploiting vulnerable people for political stunts is repulsive and cruel. Massachusetts is fully capable of handling asylum seekers, and I’ll keep working with local, state and federal partners to ensure we have the necessary resources to care for people with dignity,” she tweeted.  

Warren, the senior senator from Massachusetts, was one of several Democratic senators who angrily criticized DeSantis for flying the group of about 50 migrants from San Antonio, Texas, to a small island with about 17,000 year-round residents, sending local officials scrambling to house and feed the migrants.

DeSantis’s gambit risks causing tension with Massachusetts’s Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, whose office said he’s in touch with local officials to make sure the migrants are being cared for.  

Terry MacCormack, a spokesman for Baker, told media outlets that the governor’s administration is “in touch with local officials regarding the arrival of migrants in Martha’s Vineyard” and that “short-term shelter services are being provided by local officials.”