Florida gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis
Ronald Dion DeSantisDeSantis ally called Obama racial slur on Twitter Election Countdown: Trump confident about midterms in Hill.TV interview | Kavanaugh controversy tests candidates | Sanders, Warren ponder if both can run | Super PACs spending big | Two states open general election voting Friday | Latest Senate polls DeSantis says doesn't 'think anything's changed' between him and Trump MORE's (R) campaign is pushing back against newly unearthed tweets that showed a Republican activist and campaign ally calling former President Obama a racial slur.
Politico on Thursday reported that Steven Alembik, who has donated more than $20,000 to DeSantis, called Obama the n-word and a Muslim in a since-deleted tweet.
“We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: we adamantly denounce this sort of disgusting rhetoric,” DeSantis campaign spokesman Stephen Lawson told Politico in a statement.
Alembik acknowledged to the news outlet that he fired off a tweet on Sept. 8 in response to a Republican National Committee (RNC) post that highlighted Obama's criticism that the GOP had become a party of resentment and paranoia.
“Without a hint of irony, Obama smears President Trump
Donald John TrumpTrump rallies in Nevada amid Supreme Court flurry: 'We're gonna get Brett' Trump: 'Good news' that Obama is campaigning again Trump boosts Heller, hammers 'Wacky Jacky' opponent in Nevada MORE’s 63 million Republican voters as divisive & resentful,” the RNC wrote.
Alembik then quoted the tweet and wrote: “F--- THE MUSLIM N-----," according to Politico.
Alembik insisted that neither he nor DeSantis are racist and said he wrote the tweet in anger.
The tweet marks the latest instance where race has become an issue in the Florida gubernatorial contest between DeSantis and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D), who is black.
The day after each candidate won their respective primary, DeSantis, a recently departed U.S. congressman, urged voters not to “monkey this up” by voting for Gillum in the November election.
His comments prompted an immediate backlash, with critics suggesting the remarks had racial undertones or were outright racist.
DeSantis denied that race had anything to do with his comments, but instead argued he was focusing on "ideas and principles."
Days later, Gillum was the target of a robocall paid for by an Idaho-based white supremacist organization. The phone recording features a man pretending to be Gillum speaking in an exaggerated accent as jungle noises play in the background.
Both Gillum’s and DeSantis’s campaigns have condemned the message.
