Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), a gubernatorial nominee who recently was accused of using racially tinged language, spoke four times at conferences organized by a conservative activist who has said that African Americans owe their freedom to white people and that the country’s “only serious race war” is against whites.
DeSantis, elected to represent north-central Florida in 2012, appeared at the David Horowitz Freedom Center conferences in Palm Beach, Fla., and Charleston, S.C., in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017, said Michael Finch, president of the organization. At the group’s annual Restoration Weekend conferences, hundreds of people gather to hear right-wing provocateurs such as Stephen K. Bannon, Milo Yiannopoulos and Sebastian Gorka sound off on multiculturalism, radical Islam, free speech on college campuses and other issues.
“I just want to say what an honor it’s been to be here to speak,” DeSantis said in a 27-minute speech at the 2015 event in Charleston, a video shows. “David has done such great work and I’ve been an admirer. I’ve been to these conferences in the past but I’ve been a big admirer of an organization that shoots straight, tells the American people the truth and is standing up for the right thing.”
The Florida gubernatorial campaign is one of the marquee races of 2018, pitting DeSantis, a Trump acolyte and lawyer in the Navy Reserve, against Andrew Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, who would become the state’s first African American governor. President Trump has endorsed DeSantis, and Gillum is backed by progressive leader Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont. In less than two weeks since the primary, race has become a central issue in the nation’s largest battleground state.
Again, these are all appearances that DeSantis made while being a sitting Congressman for the last six years and apparently nobody bothered to check to see if there were things like "video of a 27-minute long speech that the guy gave at a white supremacists conference while being in Congress" until the Washington Post decided to look into it.
Nice.
In his 2017 speech, DeSantis echoed many of Trump’s top grievances — blasting Washington as a “swamp,” criticizing the special counsel investigation into the 2016 election and defending the travel ban against several majority-Muslim countries.
Members of Congress are required to file disclosures when outside groups pay for their travel. DeSantis filed one for only the 2017 trip, reporting that the Freedom Center paid $468 in meals for him and his wife and $750 for lodging at The Breakers in Palm Beach.
A spokesman for DeSantis said the congressman or his campaign paid his expenses in 2015 and 2016, so no disclosure filing was required. His campaign produced receipts for only the 2015 trip. In 2013, DeSantis spoke at the conference, but did not stay, so there were no expenses, the spokesman said.
Beyond the annual conferences, Horowitz has a record of inflammatory comments on social media. He was temporarily locked out of his Twitter account last month for a post involving Islam. “If you’re a Muslim, you might not want to be sworn in on a Judeo Christian bible, since Islam has conducted a 1500 year war against Christians and Jews, is calling for death to Israel and has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Christians recently.”
Twitter said the post violated rules against “hateful conduct.” Horowitz defended the tweet, telling The Post: “Most Muslims are law-abiding people who are trying to put food on the table for their kids but Islam is very problematic. . . . You show me the Islamic leaders who are not okay with the calls to exterminate Jews and Israel.”
Four times DeSantis showed up at this little cross-burning neo-Nazi shindig. Four times in six years.
Wasn't news until today. DeSantis resigned from the House to "focus on the governor's race" but it's clear just how much trouble he's in now.
He's the favorite to become the next governor of Florida still, however.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment