PUNTA GORDA, Fla.—Gov. Ron DeSantis made it clear on Aug. 30 that he thought his gubernatorial opponent’s running mate should be disqualified and never hold office in Florida.
At a press conference in Fort Pierce, DeSantis criticized Charlie Crist’s choice of Karla Hernandez Mats saying that she puts “union politics” first.
He called her “disgraceful” for defending a teacher who had been abusing children since 2004 and advocating that the U.S. attorney general investigate parents who speak out at school board meetings.
Mats was chosen as Crist’s Democratic running mate on Aug. 26.
She is a former middle school teacher and the vice president of the American Federation of Teachers.
The governor complained that the union boss worked “tooth and nail” to keep children locked out of school during the pandemic.
“They opposed everything we did in the state of Florida to give kids an opportunity and to put parents and families first,” DeSantis said.
He went on to say that there has been learning loss due to locking children out of school.
“We already know the catastrophic damage that happened for locking these kids out of school and we know Florida is so much better off because we actually put our kids first and we understood how important it was to be in education.”
Crist served as the 44th Republican governor from 2007 until 2011; he ran for a Senate seat but lost the primary to Republican Marco Rubio; the Republican turned Democrat endorsed then-president Barack Obama for his reelection in 2012.
He ran for a U.S. 13th congressional seat and won. He has been serving in that position since 2017.
Since the Democratic ticket has been decided Crist has aligned himself with President Joe Biden and is hoping for his endorsement.
At a Democratic fundraiser in Maryland on Aug. 27, Biden said that Republicans who support a “Make America Great Again agenda,” were “fascists.”
Crist called Biden’s statements his being “honest about what he feels in his heart and his soul.”
However, these comments coincided with the Seminole County Republican party office being vandalized with the word “fascist” spray painted on the outside of the building during the weekend of Aug. 27.
The Seminole County Republican Party posted the incident on their Facebook page and provided pictures of the vandalism.
Super Glue had also been squirted on the front door lock. The investigation is still ongoing according to police.
The Epoch Times reached out several times to Charlie Crist’s campaign for comments on DeSantis’ attack on Mats but there was no response.
