Twitter drags Trump-backed Florida candidate for racist comment

Ron DeSantis is already in hot water less than a day after winning the GOP nomination in the Florida gubernatorial race because of a racist remark he made about his upcoming general election opponent, democrat Andrew Gillum.

The Trump-endorsed DeSantis stepped it in big time on Wednesday morning during an appearance on Fox News in which he said that Florida shouldn't "monkey this up" by electing Gillum, who is black.

No, really. He actually said it.

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It's hard to believe in 2018 that white people still claim ignorance around using "monkey" or "ape" in connotation with African-Americans when the use of the word has a had an incredibly long association as a racial epithet.

A little later in the program, Sandra Smith, the Fox News anchor who interviewed DeSantis, read a statement from the GOP candidate's camp and added Fox News' reaction to the comments, saying, "We do not condone this language and wanted to make our viewers aware that he has since clarified his statement.

But here we are and DeSantis' camp is already back-tracking from the comment.

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Later Wednesday, Mayor Gillum was on Shep Smith's show on Fox News where he addressed DeSantis' comments, saying, “Well, in the handbook of Donald Trump they no longer do whistle calls – they’re now using full bullhorns. And what I’ve got to say about that is that we’ve got to make sure that we stay focused, I think, on the issues that confront everyday people."

As for DeSantis, though, just... how? Not to bite on John Oliver but how is this still a thing? There's no excuse for this and Twitter was quick to call DeSantis into account.

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As noted in one of the tweets above, David Bossie, president of Citizens United and a member of DeSantis' team, was the guy who used the phrase "cotton-pickin' mind" towards a black panel member on Fox News earlier this summer.

When the same group of people keep doing the same damn thing, it's a lot harder to believe it's a mistake rather than the blatant racism is clearly is.

UPDATE: Aug. 29, 2018, 4:08 p.m. EDT Story updated to include Mayor Gillum's later Fox News appearance