Charlie Crist’s Running Mate Calls DeSantis ‘Wannabe Dictator,’ Campaign Responds: ‘You Wouldn’t be Allowed to Post a Video Like This’
MIAMI (FLV) – Charlie Crist’s running mate Karla Hernandez-Mats sent out a video on Sep. 11 calling Gov. Ron DeSantis a “wannabe dictator.”
Hernandez-Mats stood in front of a chalkboard as if she were teaching a lesson on the vocabulary word “dictator.”
“So if we use it in a sentence, we can say, ‘in Florida, we have a wannabe dictator and Ron DeSantis,'” she said.
The DeSantis campaign responded to the video on Twitter.
“If Governor Ron DeSantis were a real dictator, you wouldn’t be allowed to post a video like this,” the DeSantis campaign said.
“Fortunately #KarlaMarx, you have freedom of speech, which includes the freedom to post cringe.”
Merriam-Webster defines dictator as:
– A person granted absolute emergency power
– One holding complete autocratic control: a person with unlimited governmental power
– One ruling in an absolute and oppressive way
Dictionary.com defined it as “a person exercising absolute power, especially a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control in a government without hereditary succession.”
Hernandez-Mats’ definition of dictator veered off from the general definition.
“Dictator- a person who gives orders and behaves as if they have complete power,” she said. “A person who behaves in an autocratic way.”
The candidate said the governor “removes people from office who disagree with him” and “limits voting power of minorities.” Hernandez-Mats did not provide context to those statements.
DeSantis suspended Democrat State Attorney Andrew Warren for “neglect of duty” after Warren vowed not to enforce certain abortion laws and potential laws related to sex change operations. While some people call the move unconstitutional, other lawyers said the Florida Constitution “expressly gives” the governor the right to remove local elected officials.
Warren had also called for the presumptive non-enforcement of certain Florida laws, including the bike stop and pedestrian stop policy.
“State Attorneys have a duty to prosecute crimes as defined in Florida law, not to pick and choose which laws to enforce based on his personal agenda,” DeSantis said.
Hernandez-Mats did not back up her claim that DeSantis “limits” the voting power of minorities.
Earlier this year, the Florida legislature approved a new congressional map that Democrats said would limit minority voices. However, Republicans said the new map is constitutional and avoids racial gerrymandering.
The Florida Supreme Court said it would not hear a case challenging Gov. Ron DeSantis’ congressional map, therefore, the 1st District Court of Appeals ruling to reinstate DeSantis’ map had the last say before the 2022 elections. The Florida Supreme Court order said “it does not have jurisdiction” to intervene in the 1st District Court of Appeal’s ongoing consideration of an appeal of an order imposing a temporary injunction.
Hernandez-Mats has been criticized for her 2016 tweet that said “many in Cuba mourn” after communist dictator Fidel Castro died.
Since then, Crist’s running mate has tried to clarify her tweet by saying the cuban people were forced to mourn the death of a tyrant.
“I proudly celebrated Fidel’s death, banging on pots and pans in the streets of Hialeah with my neighbors,” Hernandez-Mats said.
