MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell exposed herself once again as a shameless left-wing propagandist when she twisted Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ words to falsely claim he opposes the teaching of slavery in schools.
The 76-year-old Democrat made the gaslighting remarks while interviewing Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday on her low-rated daytime show “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”
“Let me ask you, what does Gov. Ron DeSantis not know of black history and the black experience when he says that slavery and the aftermath of slavery should not be taught to Florida schoolchildren?” she asked.
Harris took the bait in the leading question and used it as an opportunity to smear DeSantis, a Navy veteran and attorney.
“I don’t know what he knows and what he doesn’t know, but I know this: Any push to censor America’s teachers and tell them what they should be teaching in the best interests of our children, in partnership with the parents of America, is, I think, wrongheaded,” the vice president said.
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The farcical irony of asking this of Harris — a descendant of prominent slave owners — is hilarious.
Here are the names of the 200+ slaves owned by Kamala Harris’ ancestor Hamilton Brown in Jamaica in 1817. One of the largest planters in Jamaica, Brown now has a town named after him, Brown’s Town pic.twitter.com/6QnBpEQyez
— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) August 12, 2020
Bryan Griffin, the governor’s press secretary, fired back on Twitter, calling Mitchell’s deliberate mischaracterization “shameful.”
“This question from @MitchellReports exemplifies everything wrong with corporate media,” he tweeted. “They’re not accidentally terrible at their jobs–they’re maliciously intent on deceiving people.
“@GovRonDeSantis never said this, and FL has extensive black history requirements.”
Shameful. This question from @mitchellreports exemplifies everything wrong with corporate media.
They’re not accidentally terrible at their jobs–they’re maliciously intent on deceiving people.@GovRonDeSantis never said this, and FL has extensive black history requirements. https://t.co/XZMRoBFuZG
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) February 17, 2023
Griffin linked to a video clip posted by Newsbuster reporter Alex Christy, who wrote: “Andrea Mitchell spreads some fake news.”
The corporate media has repeated the lie that DeSantis opposes the teaching of slavery in American history classes.
In reality, the governor supports lessons on slavery. In October, he said: “Florida statutes require teaching all of American history including slavery, civil rights, segregation. It’s important that that’s taught.”
He continued: “But what I think is not good is to scapegoat students based on skin color. It’s not good to distort American history by saying that the American Revolution was fought to defend slavery, which is not true.”
In fact, Florida has codified compulsory lessons on the subject.
Under Florida Statute 1003.42(2)(h), schools are required to teach the history of African-Americans, including:
• The history of African peoples before slavery.
• The passage to America.
• The enslavement experience.
• Abolition.
• History and contributions of Americans of the African diaspora to society.
However, the statute states that “classroom instruction and curriculum may not be used to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view inconsistent with the principles enumerated in subsection (3) or the state academic standards.”
Subsection (3) says, among other things, “No person is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex,” and “No race is inherently superior to another race.”
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