GOP presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott rebuked his opponent, Gov Ron DeSantis over Florida’s new standards that teaches public school students that Black people benefited from slavery.
“As a country founded upon freedom, the greatest deprivation of freedom was slavery. There is no silver lining in slavery,” Scott said at a campaign event in Iowa.
“What slavery was really about was separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives. It was just devastating,” Scott added. “So I would hope that every person in our country, and certainly running for president, would appreciate that. People have bad days. Sometimes they regret what they say. And we should ask them again to clarify their positions.”
The new DeSantis-backed standard adopted by the Florida State Board of Education require that instruction “includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
The new standards have faced criticism from both Democrats and Republicans.
During a visit to Florida last week, Vice-President Kamala Harris slammed the new standards as an attempt by “extremist so-called leaders” to “gaslight” us as they aim to “replace history with lies.”
Florida Republican congressman Byron Donalds offered slight criticism of the new standards and called on the state Education Department to “correct” it.
“The new African-American standards in FL are good, robust, & accurate,” Donalds tweeted. “That being said, the attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong & needs to be adjusted. That obviously wasn’t the goal & I have faith that FLDOE will correct this.”
Former New Jersey governor and current GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie, also slammed DeSantis for trying to deflect blame as the fallout continues.
