Danny McAuliffe
A group boasting more than 188,000 retired Floridian voters is calling on Gov. Rick Scott to quit suggesting Sen. Bill Nelson‘s age makes him unfit for office.
“The members of the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans call on Governor Rick Scott to stop using ageist, inflammatory language to describe Senator Nelson immediately,” Bill Sauers, president of the organization, said.
Nelson, 76, faced Scott for a televised debate on Tuesday. During at least one of his responses, Scott said Nelson is “confused.”
“We noticed and were angered each time Rick Scott used a code word to insinuate false, slanderous reasons for not re-electing Senator Nelson during the Telemundo debate,” continues Sauers.
After the debate ended, Scott’s campaign manager, Jackie Schutz Zeckman, charged that Nelson is “barely hanging on.”
“Tonight, you will see Bill Nelson losing his mind,” Schutz Zeckman added. “A rambling, incoherent, confused, disjointed performance from a desperate career politician who is trying to hold onto his job.”
Responded Sauers: “Those statements are offensive and patently untrue and suggest that Rick Scott has a deep seated bias against older Floridians. Ageism has no place in this campaign.”
In response to criticism from the Florida Alliance, Scott spokesman Chris Hartline wrote on Twitter that the attacks are on Nelson’s ideas, not his age.
“It’s his ideas that are old, which is why we need term limits,” Hartline tweeted.
Hartline also cited an instance when Nelson had questioned the late former Gov. Lawton Chiles‘ aptitude for the job. According to Hartline, Nelson is quoted saying “the mental and physical history and the mental and physical health of a candidate for Governor is a legitimate issue.”
In prior spats between the two, Scott has also suggested Nelson is confused, though has not outright linked the accusation to Nelson’s age.
An August ad from the Scott campaign said Nelson was confused when he made public claims that the Russians had penetrated the state’s voting systems this election cycle. Those claims have not been confirmed. Scott’s team titled the video “Confused.”
4 comments
Ray Tampa
October 4, 2018 at 12:32 am
Nelson is not too confused to know that Rick Scott has gotten boatloads of money from somewhere and the public needs to know where he’s getting it.
Nelson isn’t so confused as to know that Rick Scott’s $83,000,000 in 2017 income alone is probably in need of a thorough investigation.
Lucy
October 4, 2018 at 1:32 pm
I think some of so call (Scott) “money” commercials are old, probably as old as Abe Lincoln (no disrespect intended). This are the same commercials from when Scott was running for Governor. So! Is Nelson confuse? I would say so.
O! By the way I’m old too (63) and NO I’m not confuse.
FLBILL
October 4, 2018 at 11:12 am
Interesting to observe that Desantis started his run with baby ads telling us he would do anything Trump wanted him to do, and now is telling us he will do everything Rick Scott did not do or worsen in 8 years as governor…..we do not need MORE politicians that made their fortunes by scalping the government (our tax money) in Washington, or Tallahassee….and remember, to pay for all the red ink this group has smeared all over the country’s budget, this group will come after Medicare and Social Security…you can put that in the bank!
Mary Wood
October 6, 2018 at 8:17 am
It’s TIME to go blue in Florida for now- and IF that does not work, look for politicians that are independent enough to listen to the needs of the people of the state.
Comments are closed.