Scott, DeSantis comment on Florida’s black history curriculum

GOP presidential candidate Tim Scott, a South Carolina senator, spoke to a crowd in Ankeny kast night (Radio Iowa photo)

ANKENY — Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott says rival Ron DeSantis should be asked to clarify his position on Florida’s new black history curriculum.

“As a country founded upon freedom, the greatest deprivation of freedom was slavery,” Scott told reporters last night after an event in Ankeny. “There was no silver lining in…slavery.”

The curriculm includes a line that says “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” Vice President Kamala Harris has said the new curriculum is an attempt “to replace history with lies.”

DeSantis criticized Harris during remarks earlier in the day in Chariton. DeSantis said the curriculum for Florida schools is a 200 page document that has “very vivid” details about the injustices of slavery.

“Anyone that actually read that and listens to Kamala would know that she’s lying,” DeSantis said during a news conference. “And that particular provision about the skills, that was in spite of slavery, not because of.”

Scott, the first black Republican Senator from the south in more than a century, said slavery was about “separating families and mutilating humans.”

“I would hope that every person in our country and certainly running for president would appreciate that and people have bad days, sometimes they regret what they say and we should ask them again to clarify their positions,” Scott said. “…As a guy who believes in Genesis 1:26, you know, the Bible’s very clear. He gave us a lot of authority, but not over each other as humans. Men and women were created to be free.”

Scott and DeSantis will be among the 13 presidential candidates to speak Friday night at the Iowa Republican Party’s fundraiser in Des Moines. It will be former President Donald Trump’s first in-person appearance at a multi-candidate event in Iowa since he announced his third campaign for the presidency last November.

Vice President Harris will also be in Des Moines midday Friday to talk with local activists about the legal challenge to Iowa’s new fetal heartbeat law that would ban most abortions in the state. Harris met in Des Moines earlier this year with Democratic lawmakers to discuss abortion rights.