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American Ledger reported this afternoon that Trump yes-man Ron DeSantis is an administrator of a racist Facebook group that routinely attacks African Americans, Parkland survivors, Muslims, and in recent days John McCain. The story comes only hours after DeSantis made racist remarks about his African American opponent on Fox News. Even Fox News apologized for DeSantis’s remarks, saying the network doesn’t condone the type of racist rhetoric DeSantis espoused. DeSantis, however, stood by the remarks.
“Hours after he compared the first African American nominee for Governor in Florida history to a ‘monkey,’ we learn Ron DeSantis is not just a member but a leader of a racist group that regularly attacks African Americans on social media,” said American Bridge spokesperson Zach Hudson. “Florida families are quickly learning who the real Ron DeSantis is, and it’s scary.”
Below are highlights from the story. Read the full report here.
By Chad Smith | August 29, 2018.
- “Ron DeSantis, the Trump-endorsed congressman who won Tuesday’s GOP primary for Florida governor, is an administrator on an active Facebook group where conservatives share racist, conspiratorial and incendiary posts about a litany of targets, including black Americans and South Africans, the ‘deep state,’ survivors of February’s massacre at a Florida high school, immigrants, Muslims and, in recent days, John McCain.”
- “DeSantis’s campaign was already defending the congressman from accusations of racial insensitivity after his primary victory. In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday morning, DeSantis warned voters not to ‘monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist’ by supporting his opponent, Andrew Gillum, the Tallahassee mayor who became Florida’s first black gubernatorial candidate from either party when he won the Democratic nomination Tuesday.”
- “The Facebook group, simply named Tea Party, has nearly 95,000 members, and users must join the group to post or comment. The banner for the group is an image of the Confederate, Christian and Gadsden flags flying alongside the flags of the U.S. and Israel. (It isn’t affiliated with the conservative group Tea Party Patriots.)”
- “After McCain died Saturday, members flooded the page with mocking posts, including a satirical headline that read, ‘President Trump bestows Medal of Honor to John McCain’s tumor.’ Another image of a tombstone referred to McCain, a naval aviator who spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam before becoming a senator and Republican nominee for president, as a ‘traitor to America’ and a ‘friend to the Vietcong.'”
- “The group cheered Trump’s reported reference to African countries as ‘shitholes,’ blamed Islam for terrorism and accused Black Lives Matters activists of plotting to take over the country.”
- “In January, one frequent poster who runs a fake news site shared a link to an article warning of ‘civil war’ in Germany between neo-Nazis and Muslim migrants, according to Media Matters. ‘I’m actually having to root for neo-Nazis…sad state of affairs!’ he wrote.”
Read the full story here.
Published: Aug 29, 2018