Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis was the subject of a hard-hitting new editorial criticizing his racist approach to seeking the GOP's 2024 presidential nomination.
"During the 2018 gubernatorial race, then-candidate Ron DeSantis told FOX News Floridians shouldn’t 'monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda' and electing Black Democratic opponent Andrew Gillum," the Miami Herald wrote. "It’s hard to believe the Ivy League-educated DeSantis didn’t understand the racially charged context of his statement, but, faced with national backlash, he said at the time that his comment had 'zero to do with race.'”
The newspaper argued that it may have been a "slip of the tongue" but says he no longer has that defense against accusations of racism.
"If there was any effort on DeSantis’ part to quell fears that his governorship would be a continuation of Donald Trump’s white-resentment politics, that is no longer the case. Over the past year, DeSantis has, with seemingly no hesitation, used African Americans as scapegoats in his quest to become the next standard-bearer for Trumpism," the newspaper warned. "It’s not just the off-the-cuff remarks, though those have been plentiful. Most recently, he said Spotify’s Joe Rogan shouldn’t have apologized for using the N-word several times or allowing COVID-19 misinformation on his popular podcast."
Earlier in the month, the newspaper also slammed DeSantis for refusing to condemn Nazis.
"For all the bigoted things Trump said and did in four years, he wasn’t as effective at putting his ideas into law with a divided Congress as DeSantis has been through his executive powers and a friendly Legislature. If DeSantis’ “monkey this up” comment was a dog whistle to white voters, his actions in office can be considered a blast from a bugle," the newspaper reported. "Critical race theory is the new code phrase to appeal to racial resentment — the equivalent of “forced busing” in the debate over school integration in the 1960s, University of Miami School of Law professor Donald Jones told the Herald Editorial Board. While DeSantis stokes racial fears, the Black Floridians he also represents are deprived of a public education that takes their life experiences into consideration."
The newspaper said it was all about winning the White House.
"DeSantis’ sights are set on becoming president, and if stoking racial divisions worked on the path to the White House in 2016, who’s to say it won’t work again? In the meantime, it’s a shame that he seems to be enthusiastically courting white voters by telling Black Floridians that few aspects their lives truly matter to him at all," the newspaper wrote.
Read the full report.
