Kamala dismisses DeSantis’ invite for a debate over the ‘redeeming qualities of slavery’ in a speech claiming Republicans are trying to erase the ‘ugly parts of our history’

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday dismissed Governor Ron DeSantis‘ invitation for a debate on Florida‘s new education policy for black history, saying there ‘were no redeeming qualities of slavery.’

‘I’m here in Florida and I tell you there is no round table, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact: there were no redeeming qualities of slavery,’ she declared.

Harris, the country’s first black vice president, didn’t mention DeSantis by name but her meaning was obvious when she addressed the audience at the African Methodist Episcopal in Orlando, Florida.

She has been the Biden administration’s strongest critic of the state’s new school curriculum that allows students to be taught that slavery gave black people ‘skills’ which could be ‘used for their personal benefit.’

And then she lit into DeSantis, who was in New Hampshire campaigning for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. 

‘They attempt to legitimize these unnecessary debates with a proposal that most recently came in of a politically motivated round table,’ she said of his invite before soundly rejecting it.

The more than 3,000 people in attendance at the Women’s Missionary Society Quadrennial Conference burst into applause at her words, giving the vice president a standing ovation.

DeSantis had sent Harris a letter inviting her to come to Florida to debate him on the state’s controversial education policy. 

‘You know, now let’s put the money where the mouth is,’ he told reporters of Harris during a stop in New Hampshire. 

‘In Florida we are unafraid to have an open and honest dialogue about the issues,’ DeSantis wrote in a letter to Harris dated July 31.

‘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. We will be happy to host you here in Tallahassee.’

Harris, in late July, made a last-minute trip to Florida to give a fiery speech in which she railed against the state’s new education policy.

While Harris didn’t mention DeSantis by name in those remarks either, she accused people who ‘want to be praised as leaders … pushing propaganda on our children.’  

In New Hampshire, DeSantis accused Harris of pushing a false political narrative.

‘She came to Florida to attack us. 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 yeomen’s work,’ DeSantis said. ‘And so that’s just wrong.’

He added: ‘I think it’s wrong to let lies be perpetuated, it’s wrong to let false narrative stand – and they’ve been doing this to us for years from the White House, and we fought back every time.’

On Monday night he sent her the invitation to meet about her ‘grave concern’ on the issue.  

‘One would think the White House would applaud such boldness in teaching the unique and important story of African American History,’ DeSantis wrote. ‘But you have instead attempted to score cheap political points and label Florida parents ‘extremists.’ It’s past time to set the record straight,’ he wrote. 

In his letter, he also got in a slam at the Biden administration’s border policy, saying he can meet with Harris as soon as Wednesday, unless she has ‘a trip to the southern border planned that day.’

‘I am prepared to meet as early as Wednesday of this week, but of course want to be deferential to your busy schedule should you already have a big trip to the southern border planned for that day,’ he wrote.

‘Please let me know as soon as possible. What an example we could set for the nation – a serious conversation on the substance of an important issue! I hope you’re feeling up to it.’ 

DeSantis, like many Republicans, has criticized President Joe Biden for his handling of the border. Illegal border crossings finally went down in June after months of record highs. DeSantis has vowed to complete Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall on the border.

The letter comes as the Florida governor is trailing Trump in polls for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. The former president led DeSantis by 37 points in a New York Times/Siena College poll released on Monday.

Trump topped DeSantis 54 percent to 17 percent. No other candidate topped 3 percent support in the poll. 

DeSantis on Monday evening told Fox News it’s ‘nonsense’ that Republican political operatives are labeling his campaign a failure when there is still seven months until the primary election really kicks off. 

‘Everything you do needs to have a return on the investment,’ DeSantis explained to Fox host Bret Baier in an interview recorded during a New Hampshire campaign swing.

‘If there isn’t value in it, then I get changes and then that’s just the reality of what you have to do,’ he added. ‘So, I’m not a political operative. I’m not a campaign professional. You set out the vision, and you execute on it. And if it’s not being executed, you just have to course correct.’

DeSantis was in New Hampshire on Monday to release his economic plan. His campaign has included a ‘war against woke’ and an emphasis on his family and his service in the military.

But some of his gubernatorial decisions in Florida have come under fire, including signing a law outlawing abortion after six weeks, which is before most women know they are pregnant, and his state’s new education policy.

Harris, in her remarks in Jacksonville on July 21, accused DeSantis of using his war on woke to try and increase his national profile as he runs for president.

‘When I think about what is happening then here in Florida, I am deeply concerned because, let’s be clear, I do believe this is not only about state of Florida, there’s a national agenda,’ she said.

She also said that ‘as parents, we teach our children to tell the truth.’

‘Well, I think we should model what we say,’ she added. ‘These extreme so called leaders should model what we know to be the correct and right approach, if we really are invested in the well being of our children. Instead they dare to push propaganda to our children. This is the United States of America, we’re not supposed to do that,’ she said.

DeSantis and his wife Casey have three young children. They talk about them often and bring them on the campaign trail.

Harris also slammed the state for rewriting the history of slavery.

‘Adults know what slavery really involves. It involves rape. It involves torture,’ she said.

‘It involves taking a baby from their mother. It involved some of the worst examples of depriving people of humanity, in our world. So in the context of that, how is it that anyone could suggest that in the midst of these atrocities that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization,’ she added.

‘Let’s reject the notion that we would deny all of this in terms of our history. We will be better if we remember. We will be stronger if we remember. We fought a war to end the sin of slavery, a civil war, to end slavery.’

And she expressed sympathy for teachers, many of whom objected to the new policy.

‘Our teachers who fear that if they teach the truth they may lose their job. As it is we don’t pay them enough,’ she said to great applause. 

Harris also accused DeSantis of using the issue to try and divide the country.

‘Let us not be distracted by what they’re trying to do, which is to create unnecessary debates to divide our country. Let’s not fall in that trap,’ she said.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk