Democrat Charlie Crist, the man who kicked off his campaign challenging Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis by disavowing the votes of more than four million Floridians who he accused of having "hate" in their hearts is back with another bizarre set of remarks.
In a video tweeted by the DeSantis War Room account, Crist is seen speaking to a group of voters when he points out the colors on his campaign literature are the same as Ukraine's flag. "We're fighting for freedom, too," Crist says, apparently comparing his campaign against DeSantis to Ukraine's fight against Russia, to the seal-like claps of his audience.
"Zelensky is amazing, amazing," Crist continues. "The courage and the strength and the decency that he shows. This is an election about decency," the Democrat added, despite his previous statements that roughly half of Florida's voters in the 2018 election were hateful people whose support he did not want.
To Crist, the 2022 election is "about being decent to one another, about being kind to everyone — it's called a 'Florida for all,' Crist explains. "You know we've got a divider on the other side, and a uniter over here." Again, how Crist thinks he can be a uniter while demonizing half his state is a real head-scratcher, especially given his next remark.
"You know some people call him 'DeSatan,'" Crist, the alleged "uniter" says. "Have you heard that?" he asks.
"Yes," comes the murmur from Crist's audience.
"I'm trying to be nice," Crist then claims. "'DeSatan' vs. that," he says while pointing to his name on one of his campaign signs posted on the wall behind him. A few in the audience then say "Christ," in an apparent play on the Democrat candidate's name.
"Think about it — boom," Crist says, in apparent agreement with those in his audience that see him as Jesus Christ taking on "DeSatan." A bit self-aggrandizing, but the First Amendment allows such insane claims.
In just one minute, Charlie Crist compares himself to both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Jesus Christ. pic.twitter.com/Y921vt1qAB
— DeSantis War Room (@DeSantisWarRoom) September 12, 2022
"We've got a great race ahead — we do — and I'm excited about it, and the choice is crystal clear," Crist continues. "There's no question about it — it is crystal clear: he's bad, we're good," Crist says at the end of the video clip.
In addition to being bizarre, and therefore on-brand for Crist, it's also more than a little frightening that the Democrat thinks of himself — as do his supporters — as Jesus Christ. That sort of pride and assumed self-infallibility is a recipe for disaster in elected office. Would Crist govern as though anyone who questions his decisions and edicts is nothing more than a heretic?
Whoever is advising Crist or writing his talking points needs to wake up and smell the reality that pretending to be a unifier and assume the cloak of literal Jesus Christ while also saying that a majority of his would-be constituents are poisoned by hate is not a workable persona.
At least that's what the mainstream media in Florida said when Gov. DeSantis invoked biblical imagery. The Miami Herald asked whether DeSantis was "playing with fire" when he mentioned putting on "the full armor of God." Yet there's no deep-dive quoting supposed "religious leaders" who are "worrying that such rhetoric could become dangerous" — as the Herald did in response to DeSantis — when Charlie Crist tried to say he's the Jesus Christ of Florida's gubernatorial race. Funny how that works.