Florida Governor Ron DeSantis traveled to Greenville, South Carolina, on Friday night for another event as part of his “Great American Comeback Tour,” as the battle for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024 heats up.
This week, DeSantis has been very active, making stops in South Carolina as well as Iowa and New Hampshire.
As part of his multi-state campaign launch for the 2024 GOP presidential primary, DeSantis spoke in South Carolina with special guest speaker Riley Gaines, who famously has fought against transgenders competing in women’s sports.
However, during DeSantis’ speech, he was heckled by a member of the audience who dubbed him a “f*cking fascist” for his state’s educational initiatives.
When discussing parent rights in education, DeSantis told the audience that his government in Florida had worked to prevent schools from “superseding” the rights of parents when it came to the educational materials that are given to their children.
The governor was then yelled at by a woman in the crowd who objected to “kids healthcare” and yelled “you’re a f*cking fascist” at him.
DeSantis sarcastically retorted, “Yeah well, thank you, thank you,” before laying into her as the crowd responded to her crass comment with loud boos.
After a Florida governor’s address against left-wing indoctrination in public schools was cut short by the heckler, the Republican presidential contender got the final word.
“Unfortunately, there’s bad stuff that’s getting into the schools; there’s pornography that’s getting into the schools,” DeSantis, 44, told the crowd at an event in Lexington, according to video footage of the exchange. “So the parents have had to blow the whistle in Florida.”
“We’re not gonna let you impose an agenda on our kids! We’re gonna stand up for our kids!” he shouted before telling his audience: “Those people like that in Florida are the people we beat every single day on policy. We do not let them win. We win all these battles. We’re not letting them indoctrinate our kids. Not on our watch.”
Since DeSantis signed a bill prohibiting the topic of gender identity and s**ual orientation in public schools from kindergarten through third grade into law last year, many have criticized him, including Disney CEO Bob Iger.
Iger opposed the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” measure in February 2022, claiming it would “put vulnerable, young LGBTQ people in jeopardy.” This sparked a dispute with DeSantis that turned into a full-fledged court dispute for control of the Orlando, Florida, Walt Disney World resort.
The governor has come under fire from other confirmed and likely GOP presidential candidates, including former President Donald Trump, who branded the incident a “political stunt.”
A “radical” advanced placement course on black history was also blocked by DeSantis’ administration earlier this year, and he also signed legislation allowing parents to freely obtain educational materials, citing s**ually explicit materials discovered in school libraries.
“Some people say if you don’t have every book under the sun in the library that you want to ban books,” he said in March of the latter law. “That’s not true.”
The 80-year-old president Joe Biden called DeSantis’ Parental Rights in Education Act “hateful” just months before it was passed last year.
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