Florida GOP congressman says Ron DeSantis should apologize for "stupid" monkey comment

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo said Thursday that Florida Republican gubernatorial nominee Ron DeSantis’ “monkey this up” comment aimed at Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum was “stupid.”

And, he said, DeSantis should apologize for a comment that offended many people.

The DeSantis comments on Fox News, the morning after he won the Republican nomination, set off a political firestorm on social media and dominated much of the political news coverage in Florida, and nationally, for much of the day Wednesday.

DeSantis called Gillum “articulate” and said he “performed better” than other Democratic candidates, then said voters should not “monkey this up” by voting for someone with Gillum’s views.

Gillum would be Florida’s first black governor if elected, and Democrats labeled the comments a racist “dog whistle.” The NAACP Florida State Conference demanded an apology.

Gillum himself didn’t go that far in TV interviews on Wednesday, suggesting instead that DeSantis was taking a page from “the handbook of Donald Trump.”

Curbelo, R-Fla., vouched for both DeSantis and Gillum during an interview Thursday on the MSNBC program “Morning Joe.”

“I know Ron, and I don’t know him to be a racist. I’ve never heard him say anything disparaging about any ethnic group or any person for that matter. But I’ll also say that that was just a stupid comment to make, one that was obviously offensive to a lot of people. I know Ron has clarified that it was in no way intended to be racist.

“But I think he should also apologize because obviously a lot of Floridians and probably a lot of Americans are offended by it given the circumstances, and I happen to know both Ron and Andrew.

“Andrew and I actually served together on the executive board of Florida student council when we were seniors in high school. They’re both very eloquent, very talented, very articulate men.

“They’re both men of my generation, something that’s exciting for me personally and I think for a lot of Floridians. And as younger elected officials they should both set an example of what a healthy debate can look like in our state and I don’t think Ron did a good job of that that yesterday,” Curbelo said.

Curbelo, who represents parts of Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, and DeSantis, who represents the Space Coast, are both congressmen. Over the last two years, the American Conservative Union rates DeSantis as the most conservative Republican in the Florida delegation and Curbelo as the least conservative Republican in the delegation.

After the Fox appearance on Wednesday morning, DeSantis was largely silent, except for a statement from his campaign communications director that the comment had nothing to do with race


On Wednesday night, he told the Fox News host Sean Hannity that his comment about Gillum “zero to do with race.”

Hannity’s program is a friendly venue for DeSantis; the host has endorsed DeSantis for governor and has campaigned for him in Florida.

Here’s what DeSantis told Hannity:

“It has zero to do with race, Sean. It has everything to do with whether we want Florida to continue to go in a good direction, building off the success or do we want to turn to left-wing, socialist policies, which will absolutely devastate our state?

“And here’s the thing, I believe people should be judged based on their ability and character regardless of race. But it’s because of that that I know that socialism won’t work in Florida. It’s not good for any race, color or creed.”

So this is not about race. This is about ideas and principles. And I’m not going to let the Democrats and Andrew Gillum try to obscure a debate about whether his tax increases, his single-payer health care plan, his desire to abolish ICE — whether that is something that’s acceptable for Florida. I don’t think it is and I don’t care what color you are.”

During their discussion, Hannity joined in DeSantis’ criticism of Gillum’s agenda, describing him as “someone who has taken the hard, hard left with the Democratic Party.” Hannity also said under former President Barack Obama “we saw how badly minorities fared.”

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©2018 Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)

Visit the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at www.sun-sentinel.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Source: https://pilotonline.com/news/government/politics/article_fe6719cd-26c0-5193-a207-3d63eb497f4e.html

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