A.G. Gancarski
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried contended Monday that Gov. Ron DeSantis seeks a “race war and a cultural war.”
Fried, appearing on WJCT-FM’s “First Coast Connect,” was answering a listener question about the recently instituted Board of Education ban on teaching critical race theory and the 1619 Project, when she made the comment critical of the rule change.
“This is another opportunity for the Governor to create a race war and cultural war, inside of our state,” Fried told host Melissa Ross.
“I want everybody to rest assured. First of all, critical race theory is the new bogeyman of the Republican Party. It’s not something that’s taught in the state of Florida,” Fried noted. “But we need to let our teachers do their jobs and that’s teach.”
“This Governor and this Board of Education who is, again, appointed solely by Republican Governors like Ron DeSantis and the previous Governor as well, it is not their job to tell our teachers how to — sure, there’s parameters (and) policies, but this is a time when they have overstepped once again, government stepping into the job of educating, and not the teachers.”
“This is, again, a bogeyman the Governor is pushing out there to put fear into the people’s minds,” Fried continued.
“He did it intentionally, not because there’s a worry about something like this, but to create a culture war in our state. I know people in our state are smarter than this and aren’t going to fall for this political rhetoric spewed by Ron DeSantis and the Republican Party,” Fried said.
Fried’s criticism of DeSantis drew a response Tuesday morning from the Republican Governors’ Association.
“Nikki Fried’s accusations against the Governor aren’t just desperate, they’re dangerous,” said RGA spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez. “Fried has shown repeatedly that she’s incapable of being truthful about pretty much anything. Her resorting to lies and malicious manipulations on her own liberal biography and views on critical race theory are just more of the same.”
Fried’s direct criticisms of the Board of Education’s ban on teaching critical race theory and like concepts comes after DeSantis, in the wake of the board’s decision, contended some teachers would rather teach critical race theory than reading.
“Some of the nonsense that you see in some of these places around the country, I mean, they will attack cops with this type of ideology in schools, and meanwhile, they have like 87% of the kids that aren’t even literate in some of these schools. So it shows you they’re not trying to educate; they’re trying to indoctrinate,” DeSantis said.
“We’re not going to let that come to Florida. And so I’m glad that they acted. I think it’s the right thing to do. We’re going to make sure that we’re providing access to education, but solid education, free of some of this ideology that people are trying to shove down everybody’s throats.”
Even as Democrats such as Fried object to the DeSantis agenda, donors flock to him.
DeSantis, who reported nearly $40 million cash on hand in his Friends of Ron DeSantis political committee as of the end of May, has been fundraising off the critical race theory ban for days.
“I will NOT allow this Cultural Marxism to Gain a Foothold in Florida Schools,” an email solicitation sent Thursday reads.
The new guidance for teachers certainly offers content guardrails.
American history is to be defined “largely on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.” Teachers’ apparent efforts “to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view” will also be banned, as is “fiction or theory masquerading as facts.”
22 comments
Ed
June 14, 2021 at 4:26 pm
Nikki with the oldest trick in the book. The “race card” argument. Just another desperate act from a desperate woman that stands no chance at all of being Governor. Her future is tending to the “weed farm”.
Zhombre
June 14, 2021 at 4:41 pm
Utter garbage spews from her mouth. I will reiterate: Florida progressive Dems are completely worthless and I hope they are denied any statewide office.
Ed
June 14, 2021 at 5:00 pm
AMEN
Arthro
June 14, 2021 at 6:07 pm
She’s got nothing. Nothing.
Tom
June 14, 2021 at 6:46 pm
Nikki you are the racist,
You held your farmer forum that a Wisconsin federal court found the law illegal . You held it for people of color. This is the future, shrill liberal scream. People won’t be fooled.
Call George the liberal Dem historian for your extremism. You have initiated a miserable campaign, you have no hope. Hopeless, hapless and helpless. Crist is running away.
kennethmccarver
June 14, 2021 at 9:37 pm
Taxpayers, did you know….So far Biden/Harris has allowed over 2 MILLION ‘refugees’ from 161 different countries into the U.S. Think this ‘migration’ is free? far from it. Just a partial list. So even the most clueless must realize what the Democrats plan is.
* Open the Borders and flood the country (with more arriving every day) soon all of South America will be in Texas.
* Eliminate identification to vote (Democrats call it “Voter’s Right’s”)
* Citizenship for millions.
* Unemployment just got a lot worse for citizens.
* Homeless crisis in this country just got worse allowing thousands of unskilled migrants into the country.
* Hotel vouchers for migrants is costing millions. How about Hotel vouchers for homeless veterans?
* Millions are being spent on airplane flights for migrants delivering them all over the United States.
*Cost of educating migrants is staggering. From K-12 it costs taxpayers an average of $122,000 for EACH migrant students. This does not include the millions spent on bilingual ED, instructors, & daycare. School class sizes are negatively impacted and our students suffer as a result.
*Crime increasing already in Border cities. Who’s coming in?
* Emergency services for city & states increase with migrant immigration. Taxpayers pay for every police, fire, paramedic service call for migrants in their city’s. Taxpayers pay for all hospital emergency room treatments, ambulances, medications. Hospital wait times for citizens are negatively impacted for citizens.
*Every childbirth by migrants in the US is paid for with tax dollars. In the US, the average cost to have a baby without complications during delivery is $10,808, which can increase to $30,000 when factoring in the care provided before and after pregnancy (July 9, 2018 google.) At the border there was a hundreds of pregnant migrants waiting.
Michael Hoffmann
June 14, 2021 at 10:30 pm
So, what about the illegal trafficking in firearms that underpins much of the pathological quality of life in Mexico and the Emerald Triangle that pushes locals to leave their nest and head to El Norte?
The border runs both ways. We can gradually get a grip on the border and provide sanctuary to those who merit it, but the GOP has turned a blind eye to massive firearms smuggling from the US.
Jan Schmidt
June 15, 2021 at 1:31 pm
This has nothing to do with this article!
Michael Hoffmann
June 14, 2021 at 10:26 pm
Wow, AG certainly drew the MAGAettes for this column!
Here’s a piece of American pie for these folks:
http://news.emory.edu/stories/2012/02/hidden_history_of_civil_rights_movement_lynching/campus.html
MgM
June 15, 2021 at 6:07 am
Nikki Fried, the Poster Child for the LEft-Wing Radical Communist MOB.
Tom
June 15, 2021 at 8:08 am
Nikki is a total fake candidate and campaign.
Anyone who supports her will be running for cover in embarrassment.
Evan Miller
June 15, 2021 at 8:15 am
Just another liberal hack.
Mike
June 15, 2021 at 8:36 am
We need to get away from self-absorbed politicians and back (way back) to citizen servants. The majority of people in elected office these days seem to only be concerned with furthuring their quest for power and money. This is not what we need.
Zhombre
June 15, 2021 at 8:57 am
Well said.
Frankie M.
June 15, 2021 at 11:03 am
I concur. That’s why we need Ronnie to find honest work instead of pandering to the lowest common denominator.
Frankie M.
June 15, 2021 at 11:01 am
I think Fried severely overestimates the intelligence of Florida voters if the comments on this message board are any indication.
Plus 100% of all statistics are made up half the time. Just somethin to marinate on Ronnie.
Zhombre
June 15, 2021 at 12:50 pm
I only have doubts about the intelligence of the public when I read your semi-coherent ramblings, Frankie, but tell myself this moron isn’t representative of anything other than lefty trolls and keyboard cranks.
Marilyn
June 15, 2021 at 11:50 am
So tired of this liberal bullshit!!! Let’s teach history include the history of race in America including the Japanese!! Everything is black driven now TV commercials covers of magazines and shows on tv. Really? I say let’s not buy these products in these ads. Equality goes both way. I don’t want my grandkids learning critical race theory
Trina
June 15, 2021 at 12:17 pm
No you don’t have want your kids to know the truth
Zhombre
June 15, 2021 at 12:41 pm
Quite the opposite actually. Don’t want the kids subjected to and indoctrinated in CRT crap. It’s naive, sanctimonious fools like you that promote ignorance.
Thomas D James
June 15, 2021 at 2:05 pm
Nikki is a far left wackjob in WAY over her head. She will lose to Crist in the primary and we will never hear of her after that. Nikki has ZERO credentials so she jumps up and down, spout outrageous BS and shouts “look at me”. We could equate her with the idiot liberals in DC and Groundhog Joe Biden. What Nikki doesn’t realize is, she won’t be able to cook any fraudulent elections here in Florida. Now how about all the money her lover boy married marijuana magnate has given her that was never reported on her financial disclosures?????? Nikki go away, you are an embarrassment.
Tom
June 16, 2021 at 12:51 pm
Lies , lies and dam lies from the fraudster fried.
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