Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida hit again on Friday at one in all his main Republican rivals, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, accusing the senator of credulously repeating liberal criticisms over Florida’s academic requirements for the educating of slavery.
A day earlier, Mr. Scott had joined a protracted listing of politicians, educators and historians in criticizing Florida’s new requirements for African American historical past, which embody a broadly denounced line that center schoolers must be instructed that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
Speaking to reporters in Iowa, Mr. Scott, the one Black Republican within the Senate, stated: “What slavery was really about was separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives. It was just devastating.”
He added, “So I would hope that every person in our country — and certainly running for president — would appreciate that.”
Mr. DeSantis, who’s dealing with rising stress from Mr. Scott within the unofficial contest to be the main Republican different to former President Donald J. Trump, swiped again on Friday.
Republicans in Washington just like the senator, Mr. DeSantis stated, “all too often accept false narratives, accept lies that are perpetrated by the left.”
“The way you lead is to fight back against the lies, is to speak the truth,” Mr. DeSantis informed reporters in rural Albia, Iowa, throughout a bus tour of the state. “So I’m here defending my state of Florida against false accusations and against lies, and we’re going to continue to speak the truth.”
The remarks by Mr. DeSantis — who has been in a defensive crouch — plunged him deeper right into a battle about slavery and training with two distinguished Black Republicans.
On Thursday, he rounded on Representative Byron Donalds of Florida, an ally of Mr. Trump’s, for criticizing the tutorial requirements.
“Are you going to side with Kamala Harris and liberal media outlets,” he requested, nodding to the vice chairman’s current critique of Florida’s actions, “or are you going to side with the state of Florida?”
DeSantis allies have defended the governor’s place and the Florida requirements, arguing that critics are seizing on a number of remoted traces and that mainstream requirements have included related steering prior to now.
Jeremy Redfern, a spokesman for the governor’s workplace, referred to as consideration on Twitter to the official framework for an Advanced Placement course on African American research that was rejected by Florida, setting off an earlier political controversy over training.
The A.P. framework mentions that “in addition to agricultural work, enslaved people learned specialized trades and worked as painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians and healers.” It provides that “once free,” African Americans “used these skills to provide for themselves and others.”
On Friday night, each Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Scott, in addition to Mr. Trump, Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence and different Republican candidates, will seem at a Lincoln Day dinner hosted by the Republican Party of Iowa, in a uncommon convergence of the highest tier of the G.O.P. discipline.
With Mr. Trump main by greater than 30 proportion factors in nationwide polls of the race, and holding a snug edge in restricted surveys of Iowa, the remainder of the Republican candidates are jockeying to overhaul Mr. DeSantis as his prime rival.
And the governor’s place has appeared precarious: His donors and allies have more and more expressed doubts about his power as a candidate and his capability to repair his marketing campaign’s issues, amongst them profligate spending.
Mr. DeSantis additionally acquired blowback this week from fellow Republicans for remarks he made about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Democrat who helps abortion rights and who has unfold conspiracy theories about vaccines. The governor urged on Wednesday that Mr. Kennedy could be an excellent possibility for prime posts at public well being companies just like the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Friday in Albia, Mr. DeSantis sought to make clear his feedback.
“I was asked about appointing him to be like V.P., and I said, he’s liberal so I wouldn’t do that,” he stated. “But I do agree with him on Fauci and the lockdowns. The lockdowns were a disaster for this country.”
Mr. DeSantis stated that whereas he would appoint solely a “physician or a Ph.D” to a submit like director of the C.D.C., he wished to “work with people across the political spectrum” who agreed together with his coronavirus insurance policies.
“So I want Democrats who have been willing to acknowledge the mistakes, to be willing to speak out against that,” he stated. “But that’s not the same as appointing to a position.”
Maya King contributed reporting from Ankeny, Iowa.
Source: www.nytimes.com