Rep. Carlos Curbelo said Thursday he knows fellow Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis, and has never known him to be a racist, but he thinks he should still apologize for comments he made while talking about Democratic rival Andrew Gillum during a live Fox News interview.
"I've never heard him say anything disparaging about any ethnic group or any person, for that matter, but I'll also say that was just a stupid comment to make," the Florida Republican told MSNBC's "Morning Joe.
During the Wednesday interview, DeSantis, while talking about Gillum, drew fire when he said the "last thing we need to do is to monkey this up" by embracing "a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state."
Fox News distanced itself from the comment, saying it does not approve of such language, and DeSantis has clarified that he did not intend his statement to be racist, but Curbelo said he still thinks DeSantis should issue an apology because Floridians and Americans were offended by it.
Curbelo said he also knows Gillum well, as they were both on the executive board of the Florida Student Council as seniors in high school.
"They are both very talented, very articulate men," Curbelo said of DeSantis and Gillum. "They are both men of my generation, something that's exciting for me personally and a lot of Floridians. They should both set an example of what a healthy debate can look like in our state and I don't think Ron did a good job of that yesterday."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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