Hours after winning the Democratic nomination for November's general election to become Florida Governor, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum's opponent, Congressman Ron DeSantis, found himself embroiled in controversy after saying that Floridians won't "monkey this up" by electing Mayor Gillum because he's "too liberal" for the sunshine state.
During an interview on Fox News, the Tallahassee Mayor commented on DeSantis' remarks, saying that "It’s very clear that Mr. DeSantis is taking a page directly from the campaign manual of Donald Trump. He thinks that in today’s day and age Florida’s voters are going to respond to that level of division. But I think he’s got another thing coming to him.”
Gillum was asked if he thought the comment was racist. Though he didn't answer directly, he did insinuate that they were.
And, Gillum also noted that "in the handbook of Donald Trump they no longer do full whistle calls, they do full bullhorns. I’m not going to go down in the gutter.”
In response to the comments, Fox News also commented on DeSantis' choice of words, and they distanced themselves from them.
Sandra Smith, the Fox host that held the interview with Congressman DeSantis, added that "During the interview, he made what some are calling an inappropriate comment about his Democratic opponent, Andrew Gillum. We do not condone this language and wanted to make our viewers aware that he has since clarified his statement.”
