DeSantis: Gillum ‘called me a dog’ at debate
Republican Ron DeSantis had a fiery response Saturday to the flap over him calling his Democratic opponent for governor Andrew Gillum by his first name at two statewide debates.
“He called a me a dog at the debate,” DeSantis said after Fox News 13 Tampa reporter Jennifer Holton asked him about the issue. “Did you watch that?”
“So what, he has his own standard, and I have a different standard? … OK, fine. Crooked Mayor Gillum, how about that? He took bribes,’’ DeSantis continued. “How about failed Mayor Gillum? He has the highest crime in Tallahassee, the highest number of murders in history.”
Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, complained about DeSantis using his first name at rally on Thursday. During the debates, Gillum called DeSantis either “congressman” or “Mr. DeSantis.”
“I met him for the time the other night first and then all of a sudden, without invitation, he was calling me only as Andrew,’’ Gillum said at the rally. “Between the two of us, he quit his job in Congress, I’m a sitting mayor, and he had the nerve to address me only as Andrew? I wanted to correct him, y’all, but I didn’t want to be petty. So, we just we pushed all the way through.”
Gillum, however, did reference man’s best friend when talking about DeSantis in the second debate Wednesday in Davie.
Gillum quoted a proverb that a “hit dog will holler” to suggest that DeSantis responded defensively to a question about his ties to people who have made racist comments.
Gillum has denied being the target of an FBI investigation in Tallahassee, and he says his city’s crime rate is actually declining.