GOP Gubernatorial Nominee Ron DeSantis Spoke at Event Featuring White Genocide Conspiracy
Ron DeSantis, a Florida congressman and the Republican nominee for the state’s gubernatorial race, spoke at numerous conferences where the racist white genocide conspiracy theory was heavily promoted, according to a new report from the Washington Post.
The David Horowitz Freedom Center conferences, which are organized by the controversial right-wing activist David Horowitz in Palm Beach, Florida, focus on promoting conservatives who push a far-right agenda. Such speakers include Stephen Bannon, Milo Yiannopoulos, Geert Wilders, and Sebastian Gorka.
DeSantis heaped high praise on Horowitz during the conference, saying in 2015, “I just want to say what an honor it’s been to be here to speak. 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.”
DeSantis spoke at these events in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
As for Horowitz, he has made numerous controversial remarks on race in the past.
“Black Africans enslaved black Africans. America freed them sacrificing 350k mainly white Union lives,” Horowitz wrote in a tweet. “American blacks are richer, more privileged, freer than blacks anywhere in the world, including all black run countries.”
He has also said America’s “only serious race war” is “against whites — continues,” a common variation of the racist belief that other races are exterminating white people in majority white countries due to the influx of black and brown immigrants.
Horowitz also defended DeSantis after the candidate dove into hot water by telling voters not “monkey” the election up by voting for his “articulate” Democratic opponent Andrew Gillum, who is black.
“There’s a lynch mob on his back,” Horowitz said. “Saying a black person is articulate is not racist — it’s praising him for him being articulate. Are there no inarticulate blacks?’’
DeSantis also claimed that his comments had “zero to do with race.”
One of the founding mission statements of Horowitz’s Freedom Center stated, “We combat the efforts of the radical left and its Islamist allies to destroy American values and disarm this country as it attempts to defend itself in a time of terror.”
When contacted for comment by the Post on the controversy, a DeSantis flack said the candidate does not “buy into this ‘six degrees of Kevin Bacon’ notion that he is responsible for the views and speeches of others.”
DeSantis has also taken fire for helping moderate a massive conservative Facebook group in-which racist remarks and wild conspiracy theories were frequently shared. He has since left the page after his role in it was revealed by the liberal watchdog group Media Matters.
Additionally, a neo-Nazi group based in Idaho has been making robocalls attacking Gillum for being black, which the DeSantis campaign called “appalling and disgusting.”
[image via screengrab]
