Ron DeSantis said Monday that he’s not backing down from his defense of Florida educational standards regarding slavery and Black history, and he expects more from Republicans than to “bend the knee” to critics on the left like Vice President Kamala Harris.
During an interview with Bret Baier on Fox News “Special Report,” the Florida Governor and 2024 presidential candidate responded to criticisms from Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, of language in the state’s 216-page set of guidelines governing classroom instruction on Black history that claims slavery conferred benefits to the enslaved.
“Kamala Harris got on a jet at taxpayer expense and flew to Florida to lie about the African American history standards that were developed,” DeSantis said.
The Governor said the issue illustrated why Republicans “can’t bend the knee to the left’s lies” and “when the left lies and creates these phony narratives, you’ve got to push back.”
“They’ve been doing this to Republicans for years and years. Republicans bend the knee and it’s just one thing after another,” DeSantis said.
The Governor said again that the Vice President shouldn’t have come to Florida to make the criticisms she did.
“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. “These guys down in Florida, they didn’t have an agenda. They were just trying to shoot straight.”
“We know what the left does. Republicans, you cannot take that bait. You’ve got to fight back against these people,” the Governor said.
The Governor went on to accuse critics of working to “take something out of context and mangle it and accept (a) bad interpretation.”
“I would just challenge people to read them,” DeSantis said about the standards, before suggesting the real issue isn’t the language but his candidacy for higher office.
“If I wasn’t running for president or I wasn’t who I was, no one would have cared about this,” DeSantis said.
The Governor’s comments come after multiple Republican opponents have taken issue with the standards.
Sen. Scott critiqued DeSantis after a rally Thursday in Ankeny, Iowa
“What slavery was really about was separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives. It was just devastating. So I would hope that every person in our country — and certainly running for President — would appreciate that.”
“People have bad days,” Scott continued. “Sometimes they regret what they say. And we should ask them again to clarify their positions.”
During a Fox News interview with Neil Cavuto, Chris Christie said he agreed with Scott.
“I think that what they’ve done is wrong and worse yet, what I really criticized Governor DeSantis for was when he said ‘I didn’t have anything to do with it and I didn’t know anything about it,’” Christie said. “Well, that’s not leadership. You know, that’s looking out at what’s going on in your state and saying you’re not responsible when you’re the Governor.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence also urges reconsideration.
“Slavery was evil and nothing good ever came from slavery,” Pence said in Iowa Sunday evening. “But I have a hard time believing that Florida intended to say anything other than that in their education standards. And I’d encourage the governor to take another look at it.”
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