Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (Republican) claimed he recently saw “people defecating on the sidewalk” — an act he chalked up to “woke” ideology — during a speech at a Faith & Freedom Coalition event on Friday.
The 2024 GOP presidential candidate, who spoke at the conservative group’s “Road to Majority” conference, discussed so-called wokeness — a popular Republican boogeyman — as he warned of the mindset’s impact on the criminal justice system.
“When woke overtakes our criminal justice system — like it has in San Francisco, like it has in Los Angeles — the average person becomes less safe in their communities as a result,” said DeSantis, who vowed to leave “woke ideology in the dustbin of history.”
“Don’t tell me it doesn’t affect people’s lives. I was just in San Francisco. I saw — in 20 minutes on the ground — people defecating on the sidewalk. I saw people using fentanyl. I saw people smoking crack right there in the open, right there on the street. It was a civilisation in decay.”
DeSantis, who recently dropped a campaign video criticising the “collapsed” city over its “leftist policies,” received pushback from San Francisco Mayor London Breed (Democrat), who called his comments part of “the oldest playbook in politics to get attention.”
Twitter users similarly slammed the Florida governor over his remarks, pointing to reports of people pooping in public in the Sunshine State and noting that Florida has “significantly higher” drug overdose mortality rates than California.
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