Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) promptly shut down on Thursday a leftist opponent who blamed him for the Jacksonville shooting last month.
At an event celebrating Florida’s pro-freedom positions on mask mandates and lockdowns, a member of the audience accused DeSantis of being responsible for a “racially motivated” shooting at a Jacksonville Dollar General last month that left three black Floridians murdered.
Specifically, the person, a black man who identified himself as someone who disagrees with DeSantis’ policies, accused DeSantis of having “enacted policies that hurt people like myself” because he has “allowed weapons” to be put into the hands of “immature, hateful” people who carry out violence.
But DeSantis refused to let those accusations stand.
“First of all, I did not allow anything with that,” DeSantis said. “I’m not gonna let you accuse me of committing criminal activity. I am not going to take that. I’m not going to take that. You want to have a civil conversation, that’s one thing — try to say that I’m letting — that guy was Baker Act-ed. He should have been ruled ineligible, but they didn’t involuntarily commit him.”
“Please allow me to speak my truth, sir,” the man responded.
“No, no. No, no. There is the truth. There is something about the truth. It’s not — everyone doesn’t have their own truth,” DeSantis fired back, to loud applause. “You don’t get to come here and blame me for some madman. That is not appropriate, and I’m not going to accept it.”
Shockingly, the man then accused DeSantis of allowing people “to hunt people like me.”
“Oh, that is nonsense. That is such nonsense,” the governor responded. “We’ve done more to support law enforcement in this state than anybody in throughout the United States. Our crime rate in Florida is at a 50-year low. We have enacted policies so that people have a chance to live in safety.”
Governor DeSantis Jacksonville Press Conferencewww.youtube.com
According to WJXT-TV, security escorted the man out after the exchange.
Unfortunately, the man was not the first person to accuse DeSantis of being responsible for the Jacksonville tragedy. State Rep. Angie Nixon (D), for example, claimed DeSantis has “blood on his hands,” and various religious leaders have also blamed DeSantis.
Those critics, however, cannot point to any policies or actions that definitively demonstrate DeSantis shares responsibility for last month’s attack.
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