An MSNBC panel including Sirius XM's Mark Thompson and Michael Hopkins, communications consultant for Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, slammed Republican Ron DeSantis for using the term 'monkey' in reference to his opponent. Gillum is African American.
Hopkins, who is also black, was clearly outraged. 'That wasn't just a dog whistle, that was a bullhorn," he said. "That was a blatantly racist comment. If DeSantis wants to say that he uses that kind of language all the time, he should stop talking."
Host Ali Velshi told Thompson he was trying to "to give DeSantis the benefit of the doubt," but Thompson was having none of it. "When you say monkey in reference to an African-American, he might as just as well said the N-word," Thompson said angrily. "DeSantis needs to immediately apologize or drop out of the race. This is absolutely racist."
Thompson also pointed out that these kind of racist attacks have a long history. "If he gets away with it this time, he's going to continue to do it. They did it to the Obamas, referring to them as primates and now he's going to do it to Andrew Gillum."
Hopkins agreed that it was no accident. DeSantis "knew where he was when he said it. He knew the audience he was talking to," Hopkins said. "It's not even 12 hours after the race was called that now we're hearing racist language being echoed by DeSantis."
Visibly agitated, Hopkins added that he was "sick and tired of people using racist language and gaslighting us and telling us it's not racist. It's racist and DeSantis needs to be held accountable for it."
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