The money line in Monday night’s debate between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his Democratic opponent Charlie Crist was when the governor referred to Crist as an “old donkey.”
Crist pushed an interesting angle during the debate, which is that DeSantis has his sights on a White House run in 2024 and when he badgered the Republican about committing to serving all four years of his term, DeSantis said: “I just want to make things very, very clear. The only worn-out, old donkey I’m looking to put out to pasture is Charlie Crist.”
The line was so funny even Crist cracked a smile, try as he might to suppress it. Speaking of funny, Democrats would make an expected cry of racism after Crist, who is trailing badly in the race, failed to make the necessary inroads during the debate — but even here, the Crist camp just can’t seem to get out of their own way.
DeSantis supporters were reportedly chanting “Keep Florida Free!,” this being the DeSantis campaign slogan, but perpetually offended Democrats apparently heard “Refried beans!”
The @CharlieCrist camp says @RonDeSantisFL supporters tonight chanted “refried beans” to insult the Dem’s running mate, @KarlaforFlorida
DeSantis supporters say the chant is “Keep Florida Free”
You be the judge 1/2
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) October 25, 2022
The tweet above, from NBC News digital reporter Marc Caputo, linked to a video of the supporters chanting… but the source of that video would apparently delete the embarrassing evidence, as Caputo noted in a follow up tweet.
2/2 Deleted the below, but posting this here
I’m sure someone will complain pic.twitter.com/uz2u4WpdVt
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) October 25, 2022
The Crist camp claimed the chant was intended to insult Crist’s running mate, Karla Hernandez, a hard-left teachers union chief who’s not quite ready for prime time. She was selected to pander to Hispanic voters who have a growing affinity for DeSantis, according to polls. The odd thing here, besides getting the chant wrong, is that DeSantis’ running mate, Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, is Hispanic, so why would his supporters want to insult Hernandez?
On that note, Crist’s running mate had this to say about Hispanics: “Latino people are racist. That’s okay. They still have a lot of colonial mentality. We have to get through that.”
😶Charlie Crist’s running mate @KarlaforFlorida: “Latino people are racist. That’s okay. They still have a lot of colonial mentality. We have to get through that.” pic.twitter.com/as7pCcMR5w
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 #FloridaStrong (@DeSantisWarRoom) October 24, 2022
Julio E. Ligorria, who claims to be a disinformation analyst in his Twitter bio, tweeted the now-deleted video along with the claim that the “refried beans” chant was directed at Hernandez.
Our hero, who also touts that he is a “VP at Balsera Communications,” has since locked down his Twitter account.
Ligorria may have tweeted an apology, according to one social media user:
He did tweet an apology. pic.twitter.com/JL4H93vc8E
— David Browder (@DavidMBrowder) October 25, 2022
Here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story, to include the DeSantis campaign, as seen on Twitter:
“Disinformation analyst” deleted this tweet when everyone pointed out that the crowd was chanting #KeepFloridaFree aka … our campaign slogan. Chanting “refried beans” makes about as much sense as “let’s go brandon” pic.twitter.com/Ho2WyT6BUe
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) October 25, 2022
The absolute state of the Florida Democratic Party in 2022: pic.twitter.com/7xxWgJIO2N
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 #FloridaStrong (@DeSantisWarRoom) October 25, 2022
This is why Democrats are about to get wiped out.
They hear Let’s Go Brandon and Refried Beans. https://t.co/rov2mUdQKy
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) October 25, 2022
Charlie Crist’s camp can now get hearing aids over-the-counter thanks to Biden.
— MJ 🇺🇸 (@mjrod) October 25, 2022
The Crist Campaign: pic.twitter.com/Yx4bfwhnCN
— Holly Thornton (@beachmamax2) October 25, 2022
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