Florida's Definitely-Not-Racist GOP Candidate for Governor Keeps Having Racism Scandals
For someone who repeatedly insists he’s not racist, Florida’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis sure seems to find himself attached to a whole bunch of racist people. From moderating an extremely racist Facebook group to attending at least four events hosted by SPLC-listed anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim extremist David Horowitz, DeSantis looks awfully guilty by association—to say nothing of his own comments that voters shouldn’t “monkey this up”by voting for his black Democratic opponent, Andrew Gillum.
With all that in mind, try to contain your shock and surprise to learn that one of DeSantis’ biggest supporters, who has donated more than $20,000 to his campaign, is now struggling to explain why he tweeted “FUCK THE MUSLIM NIGGER” in reference to President Barack Obama.
Boca Raton-area businessman Steven M. Alembik used the bigoted language in a since-deleted tweet. He told Politico that it was written in anger and that he was definitely, totally, not at all a racist.
“When I write anything inflammatory, it’s because I’m seriously pissed off,” he explained to Politico. “I’m an emotional human being. Do I have a filter on what I say? In public, yes. Would I use that word in public? No. This is Twitter.”
Perhaps “I’m only super racist online” isn’t the strongest line of defense, my dude.
Alembik also attempted to justify his racist language by blaming both stand up comedy and the city of New York:
“So somebody like Chris Rock can get up onstage and use the word and there’s no problem? But some white guy says it and he’s a racist? Really?” He continued. “I grew up in New York in the ‘50s. We were the kikes. They were the n—-ers. They were the goyim. And those were the spics.”
Sure he’s racist, but at least he’s an equal opportunity racist. And besides, Chris Rock!!!
In a written statement to Politico, DeSantis spokesperson Stephen Lawson claimed that candidate “adamantly denounce[s] this sort of disgusting rhetoric.”
Oh. Okay.