On the day after primary voting in Florida left Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis and Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum as the two major party gubernatorial nominees, DeSantis was accused of making racist remarks about Gillum, who's black. Spea...
On the day after primary voting in Florida left Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis and Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum as the two major party gubernatorial nominees, DeSantis was accused of making racist remarks about Gillum, who's black.
Speaking about Gillum in a Fox News interview, DeSantis, who is white and was strongly endorsed by Trump, called the progressive mayor "articulate," and said, quote, "he last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting this state."
Democrats quickly charged there was racial intent in the remarks, but the DeSantis campaign said they were about Gillum's policies, not him, with a spokesman saying, "To characterize it as anything else is absurd." In several cable news interviews, Gillum made clear he believed the statement had racial intent, saying on Fox that they no longer use dog whistles but instead go for the, quote, "full bullhorn." However, the didn't dwell on the issue, quickly moving on to other topics.