Ron DeSantis, the Republican nominee to become Florida’s next governor, has been accused by Democrats of using a “racist dog whistle” after saying during a TV interview Wednesday morning that voters would take the state’s functioning economy and “monkey this up” by electing his liberal African-American opponent.
DeSantis made the comment about 9:36 a.m. while appearing on FOX News following his victory in the Republican primary. He was speaking about Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who won the Democratic primary after being endorsed by Democratic Socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.
“He is an articulate spokesman for those far-left views. And he’s a charismatic candidate,” DeSantis said of Gillum. “I watched those Democratic debates. None of that is my cup of tea but he performed better than the other people there so we’ve got to work hard to make sure that we continue Florida going in a good direction. Let’s build off the success we’ve had with Gov. [Rick] Scott. The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state. That’s not going to work. That’s not going to be good for Florida.”
Almost immediately, Democrats rushed to condemn DeSantis’ statements.
Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.
