WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is refusing to sentence Elon Musk ‘s publish endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy principle, sustaining Sunday that he wasn’t acquainted with the publish regardless of it prompting main corporations to tug promoting from the billionaire’s X social media platform.
“I didn’t see the remark,” DeSantis, the governor of Florida, mentioned on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And so, I do know that Elon has had a goal on his again ever since he bought Twitter as a result of I feel he is taking it in a route that lots of people who’re used to controlling the narrative do not like.”
Musk has sparked outcry with a current tweet responding to a consumer who accused Jews of hating white individuals and for professing a basic indifference to antisemitism. “You might have mentioned the precise reality,” 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 again huge manufacturers and their advert {dollars} that represent its foremost income.
DeSantis introduced his presidential bid on Musk’s platform, whilst some analysis reveals it has develop into a haven for hate speech because the billionaire took over the corporate final 12 months. “State of the Union” put Musk’s publish on the display and host Jake Tapper learn it to DeSantis earlier than urgent him to sentence it — however the governor continued to demur.
“I do know you tried to learn it. I do not know what the context is,” mentioned DeSantis who was becoming a member of the present through videoconference . “I do know Elon Musk. I’ve by no means seen him do something. I feel he is a man that believes in America. I’ve by no means seen him bask in any of that. So it is shocking, if that is true, however I’ve not seen it. So I do not need to sit there and cross judgment on the fly.”
The governor additionally mentioned he opposes antisemitism “throughout the board,” irrespective of if it comes from the correct or left of the ideological spectrum.
“It is fallacious it doesn’t matter what,” DeSantis mentioned.
The publish has drawn criticism from the White Home, the place spokesperson Andrew Bates mentioned final week that, “It’s unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind probably the most deadly act of antisemitism in American historical past at any time, not to mention one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish individuals because the Holocaust.”
That referred to Hamas’ lethal assault on Israel, which occurred on Oct. 7.
Showing on Tapper’s present in particular person instantly after DeSantis, Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin mentioned it wasn’t credible to consider that somebody working for president did not see Musk’s publish: “That is 4 days later and he has not had an opportunity to learn what Elon Musk wrote?”
“That could be very laborious for me to consider,” Raskin mentioned. “In any occasion you confirmed it to him, and he nonetheless refused to sentence it.”
“If you happen to’re serous about condemning and confronting antisemitism and racism and these bigotries, that are the gateways to destruction of liberal democracy, you have to be specific and open and full-throated about it,” Raskin added “and you have to denounce the antisemitism and racism throughout the board.”
Raskin himself known as the publish “outrageous and harmful,” and recommended that he and different members of the Home deliberate to put in writing to Musk “to ask him to resign these feedback and to scrub up his act.”
