fbpx
Skip to content

‘Chain Gang Charlie’: Who is the Man Bidding to be Florida’s Next Governor?

Leer en Español

Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL) has announced his intention to run for Governor of Florida in next year’s election, a process that will require him to defeat incumbent Ron DeSantis and win over the state’s increasingly conservative population.

Crist, who represents Florida’s 13th Congressional District in Congress, previously served as governor of the sunshine state between 2007 and 2011. He began his term as a Republican, but ended up turning his back on the party in 2010 when he registered as a Democrat. In an interview with Jorge Ramos, he said he felt uncomfortable with the party’s supposedly racist attitude towards then President Back Obama.

In 2010, he lost the governorship to now Republican Rick Scott, who has since gone on to represent the state in the Senate. After a five year hiatus, he returned to politics in 2016 following his election to Congress and was last year re-elected on a smaller margin against El American Chief Correspondent Anna Paulina Luna.

Unlike the Democratic nominee in 2018, Andrew Gillum, Crist is clearly not a socialist and does not pose the same level of threat as the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar.

However, his candidacy risks undermining the successes of DeSantis’s leadership, which include reducing taxation, increasing private investment across the state, and pushing back against the censorship of the Big Tech monopoly.

So who really is Charlie Crist?

Pelosi Puppet

Despite being a former conservative, he now appears to be a full-blown proponent of progressivism and left-wing politics.

Since entering Congress in 2017, he has effectively been a lapdog of the Democratic leadership and the radical left. He maintains a 100% voting record with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and votes with the far-left “Squad” a staggering 94 percent of the time.

A record of disloyalty

What does it say about a man who turns his back on the party that got him into power? Crist’s decision to leave the GOP and join the Democratic Party in 2010 raises serious questions about what he really believes and the loyalty he shows to the voters who elected him.

Even Rick Wilson, the co-founder of the disgraced Lincoln Project, has been quoted as saying that Crist “changed everything he believed in the span of a year and a half. He sloughed it off like a snake skin.”

Corruption allegations

Crist has been embroiled in numerous allegations of corruption and financial misconduct. Among the claims against him include trading favors and appointments for campaign contributions, involvement in a Ponzi-like scheme, and even fundraising on taxpayer money via an expense account.

Increasing the size of state

During his previous stint as Governor, he raised taxes on Florida’s middle class by a whopping $2.2 billion, breaking a central campaign promise not to increase them. These tax hikes included a one-dollar levy on cigarettes, increased legal fees, a surcharge on finishing, and a rise in auto tag fees.

Black men in chains?

The 64-year-old has been involved in various controversies surrounding chains. While serving in the state Senate in 1995, he sponsored legislation supporting the reintroduction of chain-gangs back to prison work crews, a practice that was last used in 1946. Human rights observers criticized the move as inhumane, with some suggesting it evoked memories of slavery.

Even more shocking though was how Crist was photographed beside African-American inmates in chains, kneeling on the side of the road. “I’m very impressed by what I’ve seen here,” he said at the time. “I see justice being done.”

Ben Kew is English Editor of El American. He studied politics and modern languages at the University of Bristol where he developed a passion for the Americas and anti-communist movements. He previously worked as a national security correspondent for Breitbart News. He has also written for The Spectator, Spiked, PanAm Post, and The Independent

---

Ben Kew es editor en inglés de El American. Estudió política y lenguas modernas en la Universidad de Bristol, donde desarrolló una pasión por las Américas y los movimientos anticomunistas. Anteriormente trabajó como corresponsal de seguridad nacional para Breitbart News. También ha escrito para The Spectator, Spiked, PanAm Post y The Independent.

Leave a Reply

Total
0
Share