Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is refusing to sentence Elon Musk ‘s post endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory, maintaining Sunday that he wasn’t aware of the submit regardless of it prompting major companies to pull advertising from the billionaire’s X social media platform.
“I did not see the comment,” DeSantis, the governor of Florida, mentioned on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And so, I know that Elon has had a target on his back ever since he purchased Twitter because I think he’s taking it in a direction that a lot of people who are used to controlling the narrative don’t like.”
Musk has sparked outcry with a current tweet responding to a consumer who accused Jews of hating white individuals and for professing a common indifference to antisemitism. “You have said the actual truth,” Musk tweeted in a reply Wednesday.
IBM, Disney and different main advertisers have since pulled funding from X, a significant blow because the platform previously often known as Twitter tries to win back big brands and their advert {dollars} that represent its major income.
DeSantis announced his presidential bid on Musk’s platform, at the same time as some research reveals it has turn into a haven for hate speech for the reason that billionaire took over the corporate final 12 months. “State of the Union” put Musk’s submit on the display screen and host Jake Tapper learn it to DeSantis earlier than urgent him to sentence it — however the governor continued to demur.
“I know you tried to read it. I have no idea what the context is,” mentioned DeSantis who was becoming a member of the present by way of videoconference. “I know Elon Musk. I have never seen him do anything. I think he’s a guy that believes in America. I have never seen him indulge in any of that. So it’s surprising, if that’s true, but I have not seen it. So I don’t want to sit there and pass judgment on the fly.”
The governor additionally mentioned he opposes antisemitism “across the board,” regardless of if it comes from the best or left of the ideological spectrum.
“It’s wrong no matter what,” DeSantis mentioned.
The submit has drawn criticism from the White Home, the place spokesperson Andrew Bates mentioned final week that, “It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of antisemitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
That referred to Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel, which occurred on Oct. 7.
Showing on Tapper’s present in individual instantly after DeSantis, Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin mentioned it wasn’t credible to consider that somebody working for president didn’t see Musk’s submit: “This is four days later and he has not had a chance to read what Elon Musk wrote?”
“That is very hard for me to believe,” Raskin mentioned. “In any event you showed it to him, and he still refused to condemn it.”
“If you’re serous about condemning and confronting antisemitism and racism and these bigotries, which are the gateways to destruction of liberal democracy, you’ve got to be explicit and open and full-throated about it,” Raskin added “and you’ve got to denounce the antisemitism and racism across the board.”
Raskin himself referred to as the submit “outrageous and dangerous,” and instructed that he and different members of the Home deliberate to put in writing to Musk “to ask him to renounce those comments and to clean up his act.”
