Biden campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond hit back after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis attacked Vice President Kamala Harris over new Black history curriculum teaching the “benefits” of slavery to enslaved people.

The VP torched the new curriculum — which includes teaching that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit” and requires teaching “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans” —in two speeches on consecutive days, and DeSantis responded by accusing her of lying, and defending the new standards at a press conference.

On Saturday’s edition of CNN Newsroom With Jim Acosta, Acosta asked Richmond to respond, and the former White House senior adviser tor into DeSantis and the slavery teachings for several minutes:

ACOSTA: You just heard Florida Governor Ron DeSantis say a few moments ago, trying to explain what’s going on in Florida and to, I guess, go back at the Vice President that somehow people who were enslaved and working as blacksmiths might be able to use those skills after they weren’t slaves anymore. I’m trying to make some sense of this. What’s your response to what Florida Governor DeSantis had to say about this?

CEDRIC RICHMOND, CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIR, BIDEN-HARRIS 2024: Clearly, factually, he’s wrong. Slavery was an abomination. It was utterly evil, and it had zero redeeming qualities. But I think that it further illustrates how far this Republican Party and these candidates are going to the right and to cater and pander to extremists in order to get support.

And I think that Governor DeSantis, his campaign has been floundering. He’s been looking for attention, and I think that he is now embarking on going as far to the right as he possibly can just to see if he can be the extremist candidate.

ACOSTA: And Governor DeSantis went after the Vice President in a tweet as well, saying, quote, “Democrats like Kamala Harris have to lie about Florida’s educational standards to cover for their agenda of indoctrinating students and pushing sexual topics onto children. Florida stands in their way and will continue to expose their agenda and their lies”. What’s your response to that?

RICHMOND: It’s the same. And I think that Governor DeSantis is going to continue to run to the extremists because he doesn’t have a record to stand on, and he will continue to push the culture wars, if not just flat out racism, in order to get a base and catch a foothold in the Republican primary. And I think that that is — I hope that Americans can see right past it.

And I don’t think that you can say that there were redeeming qualities to enslavement. I don’t think that you can bash the Vice President of the United States for defending such an atrocity.

ACOSTA: And in 2022, DeSantis signed into law what was dubbed the Stop Woke Act in Florida. That law seeks to prohibit the instruction about certain events that might cause some students to feel uncomfortable. I mean, as you know, DeSantis is certainly trying to stoke these issues for personal and political gain. You’re on team Biden. How do you counter this?

RICHMOND: I just think it’s unfortunate. And let’s just take a moment. I’m down in New Orleans with a home of Ruby Bridges and others, and you mean to tell me Ruby Bridges and the other three phenomenal young women that day who segregated schools can go through it at age four, but we can’t teach high school students about it now because it makes them uncomfortable.

And so I just think that it is such ridiculous line of thought, but I just want to be very clear in what he’s doing so Americans don’t get confused or follow a red herring.

This is racism at its best. This is the governor pandering to those far-right extremists, and it has no place in American government, has no place in American history. And it’s just really pathetic.

Watch above via CNN Newsroom With Jim Acosta.

The post ‘Racism At Its Best!’ Biden Campaign Chair Fires Back At DeSantis After Attack On VP Kamala Harris Over Slavery Teaching first appeared on Mediaite.

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