The Vice President of the United States returned to Orlando Tuesday. And she gave a very hard no to accepting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ invitation to debate Black history.
Kamala Harris addressed the AME 20th Women’s Missionary Society Quadrennial Convention. This was her second trip to Florida in 10 days, following up on her visit to Jacksonville last month to denounce Florida’s revised Black history standards, which include controversial language that suggests slavery had benefits for the enslaved.
As she did during her previous trip to Florida, the Vice President was unrelenting in her condemnation of the language backed by DeSantis, adding that no debate was possible regarding the “redeeming qualities” of slavery that she claimed DeSantis believes exists.
“And on top of all of this, in this moment, we even see extremists ban books and attempt to erase and even rewrite the ugly parts of our history right here in Florida, right here in Florida. They plan to teach students that enslaved people benefited from slavery,” Harris said. “They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, in an attempt to divide and distract our nation with unnecessary debates.”
“And now they attempt to legitimize these unnecessary debates with a proposal that most recently came in of a politically motivated roundtable,” Harris said, referring to DeSantis’ challenge to debate her about the slavery language in the curriculum.
“Well, I’m here in Florida. I tell you there is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact. There were no redeeming qualities of slavery, right? And as I said last week, when I was again here in Florida, we will not stop calling out and fighting back against extremist so-called leaders who try to prevent our children from learning our true and full history.”
In the previous 25-minute speech in Jacksonville, Harris linked the state’s treatment of Black history to “powerful forces’” efforts to “distort history,” including to “minimize or even deny the Holocaust” and obscure the history of Japanese internment camps or the treatment of native peoples.
“They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not have it,” Harris added.
Since that speech, DeSantis has messaged heavily about and against Harris, including during a presidential campaign stop in New Hampshire Tuesday, where he reiterated his challenge to the Vice President to debate him in Tallahassee.
The Governor also took his attacks on Harris to Iowa.
“They have this hoax that Kamala Harris is trying to do saying, you know, we had people, you know, because when we got rid of critical race theory, what they said was, ‘Oh, you don’t want to teach about any Black history,’” DeSantis claimed.
“Harris says that somehow Florida is teaching that having chattel slavery was good. Nobody said that, and the standard said just the opposite. But she runs with the lie, and the media repeats the lie. And here’s the thing. Republicans need to fight back against these lies,” he added.
DeSantis continued to vent during a Fox News interview that aired Monday.
“Harris comes in and parachutes. What Republicans should have done is push back against her and say you are operating in bad faith,” DeSantis suggested.
DeSantis is in New Hampshire for a second straight day Tuesday, where he will meet with Concord voters and pre-tape a “Conversation with the Candidates” for a Friday airing on WMUR TV.
Meanwhile, the Florida Democratic Party welcomed Harris back to the state.
“Florida Democrats welcome the return of Vice President Harris to the state of Florida for the second time in as many weeks while our own Governor spends his second day in New Hampshire,” said FDP Chair Nikki Fried. “The Biden-Harris administration understands that we are on the front lines of the fight for freedom and democracy — not just for Florida, but for the entire country — as our state attempts to rewrite American history.”
“For the record — Vice President Harris doesn’t need an invitation to come back to Florida; she’s always welcome here.”
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