CNN This Morning disparaged Presidential Candidate Ron DeSantis on Monday for commenting on a Florida curriculum update on slavery. Political commentator Errol Louis called DeSantis’s brief explanation a “disgraceful hash of history” and a “disgraceful pander.” Mario Parker, Bloomberg’s national politics team leader, alleged DeSantis was “disgraceful to defend slavery — to double down on it.” Despite the harsh backlash for his explanation, DeSantis never condoned or supported slavery.
CNN’s anger arose from Florida’s slavery curriculum summary. In a list of 191 points about the horrible truths of slavery, one read, “Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
When pressed to explain the clause, DeSantis responded that he did not write it but assumed they were referring to the trades some slaves learned in captivity. “I think that they are probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed being a blacksmith into doing things later in life,” He said.
Louis accused DeSantis of attacking Black history. He insisted Florida and DeSantis were wrong to state that a slave might have learned a trade or skill while in captivity.
Look, the reality is he has chosen these non-economic issues to run on — to attack Black history. To attack what he calls wokeness, you know. To attack women’s rights and abortion rights. Those are the issues that he thinks are going to carry him to the Republican nomination. In this particular case, it’s just a disgraceful hash of history. I mean, they just got all of it wrong. Even in the clarification, after that press conference, they put out this list of, you know, Black people to whom — who would fit into that category.
When DeSantis offered a list of people who proved the clause was historically accurate, Anchor Erica Hill claimed he manipulated the truth. “Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good narrative here, right?” Hill said.
“Don’t let the facts get in the way of a disgraceful pander in the case of Ron DeSantis,” Louis replied, after claiming 12 out of 14 of the people were listed as freedmen, not slaves, and thus could not serve as examples. He conveniently forgot the term freedmen referred to freed slaves, who did, in fact, fit the description DeSantis offered.
“I would hope that we can all, as a country, collectively agree slavery was wrong, and it was certainly not a jobs program,” Hill said. “The fact that he does keep doubling down on this — that there are not people around him too, to say ‘hey, stop’ — that’s remarkable.”
Hill equated DeSantis’s explanation to condoning slavery and calling it a jobs program.
“This is disgraceful to defend slavery — to double down on it, and now we’re at the point in this campaign where every couple of weeks DeSantis is doing something bizarre,” Parker alleged. “This weekend, it’s doubling down on slavery was essentially a jobs program as well.”
As a Republican presidential candidate, no one expected CNN to promote or even like DeSantis. However, it’s still surprising to watch an innocuous statement about education twisted into proslavery rhetoric. To requote Hill, “Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good narrative here, right?”
CNN's attack on DeSantis was made possible through Crest’s sponsorship.
The Transcript is below, click "expand" to read.
CNN This Morning
07/24/2023
7:34:45 a.m. EasternPOPPY HARLOW: Okay. So let’s stick on Florida for a moment because the state of Florida’s legislature passed a change in the way that they teach kids about slavery, and that change — and I’m going to read the language directly from the text of what passed because you can’t argue with the words. It says, “a clarification: instruction needs to include how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” And on page 17 it says, “Instruction includes acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” And it goes through a number of examples — the Tulsa race massacre, et cetera. Ron DeSantis was asked about this. Initially, sort of, deflects, Errol, and then doubles down. Here’s what he said.
GOVERNOR RON DESANTIS (R-FL): I didn’t do it. You know, I wasn’t involved in it. But I think — I think what they’re doing is I think that they are probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed being a blacksmith into doing things later in life.
HARLOW: While being enslaved.
ERROL LOUIS: Apparently.
HARLOW: Why — why is he doing that?
LOUIS: That’s a history major, by the way, from Yale College.
HARLOW: Right.
LOUIS: The — look, the reality is he has chosen these non-economic issues to run on — to attack Black history. To attack what he calls wokeness, you know. To attack women’s rights and abortion rights. Those are the issues that he thinks are going to carry him to the Republican nomination. In this particular case, it’s just a disgraceful hash of history. I mean, they just got all of it wrong. Even in the clarification, after that press conference, they put out this list of, you know, Black people to whom — who would fit into that category.
HARLOW: Right.
LOUIS: And, you know, I think 12 of the 14 were actually freedmen. They actually had not been enslaved. I mean, they just don’t know what they’re talking about.
ERICA HILL: Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good narrative here, right?
LOUIS: Don’t let the facts get in the way of a disgraceful pander in the case of Ron DeSantis.
HILL: You know, what stood out to me, too, is there was a tweet from Will Hurd, which I think we have —
HARLOW: Yes.
HILL: — that we can put up here where he said, “Unfortunately, it has to be said slavery wasn’t a jobs program that taught beneficial skills. It was literally dehumanizing and subjugated people as property because they lacked any rights or freedoms.” That’s what I keep coming back to, Mario. We should know the history. I would hope that we can all, as a country, collectively agree slavery was wrong, and it was certainly not a jobs program. The fact that he does keep doubling down on this — that there are not people around him, too, to say –
HARLOW: Stop.
HILL: — hey, stop — that’s remarkable.
MARIO PARKER: He’s severely undercutting his general election strategy that he’s the candidate that can supersede Donald Trump, right? I mean, the fact is, as Errol said, this is disgraceful to defend slavery — to double down on it and now we’re at the point in this campaign where every couple of weeks DeSantis is doing something bizarre. Three weeks ago, it was the LGBTQ video. This weekend it’s doubling down on slavery was essentially a jobs program as well. So you’re seeing his campaign torpedo as he just leans into this culture war fight.
