Harris rejects DeSantis' invitation to discuss Black history guidelines, 'There were no redeeming qualities of slavery'
MIAMI - US Vice President Kamala Harris dismissed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' challenge to debate his state's new Black history curriculum as "politically motivated," marking the latest escalation in a quickly growing feud between the former prosecutor and GOP presidential hopeful.
Harris, speaking in Florida Tuesday during a previously scheduled event, accused DeSantis - though not by name - of trying to legitimize the controversial standards through political gamesmanship.
"Well, I'm here in Florida," Harris said to widespread applause at the African Methodist Episcopal 20th Women's Missionary Society Quadrennial Convention. "And I will tell you, there is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact. There were no redeeming qualities of slavery."
The newly approved curriculum from the Florida Board of Education introduces standards that stated middle school students should be taught that enslaved people learned some skills they later used to their benefit. Harris has repeatedly called the standards "propaganda" meant to "replace history with lies," and divide the country.
In late July, the vice president went headfirst into the culture war issue when she quickly spoke against the standards in DeSantis' home state, just 24 hours after they were approved. Harris, a White House official told CNN, directed her team on a Thursday to set up an event in Florida after learning of what was approved - a day later, she delivered a fiery speech that ripped "so-called leaders" for willfully misleading children.
"This is unnecessary to debate whether enslaved people benefited from slavery. Are you kidding me? Are we supposed to debate that?" Harris said in Jacksonville at the time.
DeSantis, in turn, has trained his eye on the vice president, calling her a liar in the wake of her comments.
DeSantis has appeared to welcome the fight as he seeks to build momentum on the campaign trail. The Florida Republican escalated his attacks Monday when he penned a letter inviting Harris to Tallahassee to discuss the standards and accused her of trying to "score cheap political points."
"In Florida, we are unafraid to have an open and honest dialogue about issues. And you clearly have no trouble ducking down to Florida on short notice. So given your grave concern (which, I must assume, is sincere) about what you think our standards say, I am officially inviting you back down to Florida to discuss our African American History standards," the letter read.
DeSantis is struggling to break-through as he vies for the Republican nomination, trailing behind former President Donald Trump and resetting his campaign after hand wringing over his early performance and headlines about staff cuts and financial troubles. The vice president is an unpopular politician in Republican circles, making her an easy target for the primary candidate. In New Hampshire on Tuesday morning, DeSantis took on Harris directly.
"She seemed to have a lot to say about it, none of it which has been true," DeSantis told reporters at the Windmill Restaurant in Concord.
He added, "Let's have the debate. Let's dispense with the narratives. We're ready to roll."
DeSantis dismissed the idea that he's picking a fight with the vice president, saying she actually cast the first stone.
"She came to Florida to attack us, and she's trying to attack me, but she's really attacking the people that worked hard on this and have done, you know, a lot of yeoman's work," DeSantis said. "It's wrong to let false narratives stand, and they've been doing this to us for years from the White House and we fought back every time."
The vice president's office remained silent on the letter overnight so the former California attorney general could respond in her own voice, adopting a prosecutorial tone in critical remarks at a convention geared towards Black women, an important base of voters for the Biden campaign.
"They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, in an attempt to divide and distract our nation with unnecessary debates," Harris said of DeSantis.
She added, "And now they attempt to legitimize these unnecessary debates with a proposal that most recently came in a politically motivated roundtable."
Harris' willingness to engage in the back-and-forth with DeSantis illustrates a sharp shift from her previous strategy. In recent weeks, the White House and Biden campaign have sought to use her to capitalize off of confronting what they see as an effort from Republican extremists to claw back rights and personal freedoms.
"We will not stop calling out and fighting back against extremist so-called leaders who tried to prevent our children from learning our true and full history."
Meanwhile, the oldest historically Black collegiate fraternity in the U.S. says it is relocating a planned convention in two years from Florida because of what it described as Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration's "harmful, racist and insensitive" policies towards African Americans.
"He chose to pick battles with individuals that are divisive and you know just unnecessary," said Reginald Mathis, President of Alpha Phi Alpha's Beta Beta Lambda chapter.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity said that it would move its 2025 convention from Orlando to another location that is yet undecided. The convention draws between 4,000 and 6,000 people and has an economic impact of $4.6 million, the fraternity said.
The decision comes after the NAACP and other civil rights organizations this spring issued a travel advisory for Florida, warning that recently passed laws and policies are openly hostile to African Americans, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Willis Lonzer, the fraternity's general president, said in statement on Wednesday that the decision was motivated in part by Florida's new education standards that require teachers to instruct middle school students that slaves developed skills that "could be applied for their personal benefit."
"Although we are moving our convention from Florida, Alpha Phi Alpha will continue to support the strong advocacy of Alpha Brothers and other advocates fighting against the continued assault on our communities in Florida by Governor Ron DeSantis," Lonzer said.
In northwest Miami Dade, former Miami Commissioner Richard Dunn, II, who led a protest against new state education standards, said he is considering asking four- and five-star high school athletes to take their talents to another state or to a historically black college or university. It would be a boycott of Florida public universities to hurt income and rile up boosters and trustees against the governor.
"Drastic situations call for drastic measures," Dunn, II said. "They want to draw the line in the sand so we (are) going to draw the line in the sand. It's a decision our governor has made that is going to cause pain to everybody. If you don't want to teach our history, why should we come here? Go to the University of Georgia or the University of Alabama?"