Kamala Harris Is Coming for Ron DeSantis – So far, we’ve seen Ron DeSantis strike back at some of his fiercest adversaries, both from within and outside of his own party.
Ron DeSantis Challengers
He’s vehemently denied accusations that he has been disloyal to Donald Trump, claiming that America is a republic, not a monarchy. “It’s nobody’s turn,” DeSantis said in an interview with Megyn Kelly last week refuting the claim many have made that it’s not yet DeSantis’s time to be president and Trump “deserves” to have another shot at the top executive position in the country.
“You have every right to put yourself forward. You know, I believe at this point in history, 2024’s make or break for this country. I am not running to be President, I am running to do something as president for the country.”
He’s also fending off frequent assaults from his west coast rival, Gavin Newsom, who’s behaving as if he’s running a presidential campaign. Newsom challenged DeSantis to a debate which the Republican primary contender gladly accepted. In an interview with Sean Hannity, DeSantis proclaimed last week, “Absolutely. I’m game. Let’s get it done. Just tell me when and where. We’ll do it.”
DeSantis’s Newest Rival: Kamala Harris
It seems Ron DeSantis has a new opponent in the culture wars: Vice President Kamala Harris.
While her term as Vice President has been mostly marked by unexceptional action, Harris has ramped up her rhetoric, becoming more vocal in pushing back against Ron DeSantis and his policies to counter the march of the progressive agenda in Florida.
Harris jumped at the opportunity to fly down to Florida to take on DeSantis and object to a recently approved update to the state’s African American history curriculum regarding the teaching of slavery.
Channeling feigned outrage, Harris cried to an audience in Jacksonville, “These extremist, so-called leaders should model what we know to be the correct and right approach if we really are invested in the well-being of our children.”
She continued, “They dare to push propaganda to our children. This is the United States of America. We’re not supposed to do that.”
Harris parroted one line from the curriculum that stated “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit” and from the program developed by a 13-member work group that devised the state’s new African American history standards.
DeSantis defends the program stating that the attacks remove any context or in-depth analysis of the program. In several instances, he has clarified the teaching stating it says, “there were slaves that developed skills, which they did, but that was in spite of slavery, that wasn’t because of slavery, and then they used those skills post bellum to be able to provide for themselves and their families.”
Black politicians and scholars who support the teachings, such as one of the creators, Dr. William B. Allen, claim that the program is one of the most robust with regards to the history of slavery.
“The curriculum is about allowing the people who lived the histories to speak in their own names, for themselves, to tell their own stories. Lying? No. The lie is that we should make up a story about them rather than listening to the stories told on their own authority,” said Allen in an interview.
Allen was referring to tales from the likes of Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglas, who became important leaders in spite of the hate that existed at the time.
Back in April, at the National Action Network 2023 Convention in New York, the Vice President engaged in typical conservative battering, once again categorizing Republicans as “extremists.”
She attacked DeSantis for Florida’s passage of the six-week abortion ban.
“Just yesterday in Florida, extremists there signed a six-week ban — before most women even know they’re pregnant,” Harris said. “And then isn’t it interesting that in the midst of all these attacks on fundamental freedoms, these so-called ‘leaders’ dare to tell us they are fighting for our freedoms? Don’t you find it interesting?”
Who Is Really Running for President?
Considering the counter punches from both Harris and Newsom, it seems the DNC may be priming the two as potential replacements for Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket.
Indeed, that seems to be what Ron DeSantis believes. He often refers to Biden’s tenure in office as the “Harris-Biden” administration, implying that the vice president is really in charge. DeSantis also recently framed the 2024 race as a contest between himself and Harris because the 80-year-old Biden has “already passed normal life expectancy.”
Another presidential hopeful, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, also believes Harris is priming for the pole position. She told an audience at the Lincoln Dinner in Iowa that “a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris. That’s who we’re actually running against. We have to make sure she doesn’t win.”
Jennifer Galardi is the politics and culture editor and opinion writer for 19FortyFive.com. She has a Master’s in Public Policy from Pepperdine University and produces and hosts the podcast Connection with conversations that address health, culture, politics, and policy. In a previous life, she wrote for publications in the health, fitness, and nutrition space. In addition, her pieces have been published in the Epoch Times and Pepperdine Policy Review. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
From 19FortyFive
