#DeSantis claims White House ‘obsessed with Florida’ after Black history standards commentary

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) shot back at the Biden administration after Vice President Harris called his new Black history education standards “propaganda.”

“The Harris-Biden administration is obsessed with Florida…yet they ignore the chaos at the border, crime-infested cities, economic malaise, and the military recruitment crisis,” DeSantis tweeted on Friday, adding that Harris was lying.

In a speech in Jacksonville, Fla., Harris denounced the state’s updated guidelines on teaching about Black history, which include “objective” teaching and one standard that requires teachers to instruct on “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

“They dare to push propaganda to our children,” Harris said. “Adults know what slavery really involved. It involved rape. It involved torture. It involved taking a baby from their mother.”

“When I think about what is happening, then, here in Florida, I am deeply concerned,” she added. “Because, let’s be clear, I do believe this is not only about the state of Florida. There’s a national agenda.”

Harris isn’t the only one to condemn Florida’s new education laws, however.

The Florida teacher’s union slammed the guidelines as a “step backward,” and Black leaders from around the nation have accused DeSantis’s administration of “seeking to affirm white supremacy via instituting anti-Black, Black History standards.”

DeSantis, who is also in the running for the 2024 GOP presidential primary, pushed for the measure as part of his fight against “indoctrination” in schools. Other education standards passed this week regulated how LGBTQ issues could be broached in classrooms.

State Sen. Geraldine Thompson (D) said the new standards require educators to teach about racial violence in the U.S., such as the Tulsa race massacre and the Ocoee massacre. The regulations describe the violence as “perpetuated against and by African Americans,” which Thompson said is only blaming the victims.

The education’s guidelines fit with DeSantis’s 2024 campaign focus: fighting “wokeness,” a term he has used to describe anything from pro-LGBTQ policies to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Still, his campaign has lagged in recent weeks, falling even further behind the GOP frontrunner former President Trump in polls across the nation. Recent national polling averages show DeSantis receiving about 20 percent support to Trump’s 50 percent.