Florida's GOP gubernatorial nominee says a vote for his black opponent would 'monkey this up'

[Demovictory9]

resh off his victory in the Florida Republican gubernatorial primary, Rep. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that voters would "monkey this up" if they elected his African-American opponent, Andrew Gillum, to be governor, immediately drawing accusations of racism.

The remark provides a controversial beginning to what will be a closely watched general election for the Florida governorship, which pits DeSantis, who has closely aligned himself with President Donald Trump, against Gillum, a progressive backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Calling him "an articulate spokesman" for the far left, DeSantis said during an interview on Fox News when asked about his opponent Gillum, "The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state."

Gillum would become the state's first black governor if he were to win in November.
"It's very clear that Mr. DeSantis is taking a page directly from the campaign manual of Donald Trump," Gillum told Fox News' Shepard Smith hours later.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/29/politics/ron-desantis-andrew-gillum-attack/index.html

[guillaumeb]

1. "Monkey this up"?

Of all of the many ways of saying what he wanted to say, this was the one that he chose?

[Lochloosa]

4. Chose to say or told to say? I wonder.

[guillaumeb]

7. He is a GOP nominee, after all.

I will assume it was deliberate.

[John Fante]

2. BINGO!

(I'm playing racist dog whistle bingo).

[Snotcicles]

11. How to quaintly camouflage a dog-whistle. They think they're slick. nt

[monmouth4]

3. I think/hope that was his "macaca" moment. Jerk...n/t

[tymorial]

5. Jesus christ

I don't know much about DeSantis. Does he have a racist track record? I am not looking to excuse him, I am just curious if this was intended or he is simply too stupid to recognize this was grossly inappropriate.

You know sometimes I wonder if people consider the fact that many idioms have blatantly racist origins.

[lame54]

14. that's not a term anybody uses

[tymorial]

16. Monkey this up is not uncommon

Its definitely racist in origin however.

[lame54]

18. Urban dictionary...

Term not found

[tymorial]

20. Seriously

You are getting into a pissing contest over this and you use urban dictionary? I will just solve this.

[lame54]

22. *Pissing contest?...

A little reactionary
I'm not arguing
I've not heard the term
And Urban Dictionary is a GREAT reference for slang terms
Media Matters can not find a single clip of this guy using it at any other time

*no golden showers were used in this disagreement

[louis-t]

6. Who uses that term?

Nobody, that's who. Dog whistle. Period.

[gratuitous]

8. Sounds like DeSantis really assholed that up

SWIDT?

[tymorial]

17. Yeah big time.

[obamanut2012]

9. DeSantis is much worse for us than Rick Scott

And Rick Scott is evil.

I am unfortunately expecting DeSantis and Scott wins in November.

[DrDan]

19. I am feeling the same way - I think Gwen had a chance to beat him, not so sure about Andrew

desantis used to be our rep . . . he is horrible.

and I also am not confident Nelson can beat scott.

I think we will be seeing a lot of trump this fall down here.

[oberliner]

10. Has anyone ever heard that expression used before?

I've heard of "monkey around" or "muck this up" but never "monkey this up".

[sdfernando]

12. Excactly what I was thinking

"muck this up" or "muck it up" are the expressions i've always heard. Never heard "monkey this up" before.

[Cha]

13. Fucking Racist BULL HORN!

[bearsfootball516]

15. Looking forward to the first round of polling in a week or two.

[Burgie]

21. That's not a dog whistle

That’s overt racism.