Chris Christie criticizes Ron DeSantis for Florida curriculum on slavery: 'Not the words of leadership'

WASHINGTON — Presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie went after one of his 2024 Republican primary rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for his reaction to new education standards approved by Florida’s Board of Education last week.

The new standards require teachers to instruct “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” When CNN asked DeSantis about the standards, he said last week, “I didn’t do it and I wasn’t involved in it.”

Christie assailed DeSantis for not taking responsibility for the material and called the problem one of his own making.

“‘I didn’t do it, and I’m not involved in it’ are not the words of leadership,” Christie said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Christie laid the blame at DeSantis’ feet for signing the Stop WOKE Act in 2022, a bill limiting how gender and race are discussed in schools.

“Governor DeSantis started this fire with the bill that he signed. And now he doesn’t want to take responsibility for whatever is done in the aftermath of it. And from listening and watching his comments, he’s obviously uncomfortable.”

The standards have drawn condemnation from critics who say the new policies rewrite and embellish the history of slavery. Vice President Kamala Harris slammed the Florida Board of Education in a speech in Jacksonville Friday.

“They want to replace history with lies,” Harris said. “They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us and we will not have it.”

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DeSantis, Christie said, is focusing on the wrong issues and not the “big issues in our country.”

“We’re arguing about these issues, these smaller issues, when we’ve got big issues in our country like runaway inflation, that continues to hurt families, like an education system,” Christie said. “Instead of worrying about this, let’s talk about the falling test scores throughout this country that are making us less competitive with the rest of the world.”

Christie also accused DeSantis of being “politically manipulative” and said he signed the education bill to boost his own presidential campaign.

“If this was such a big issue for Governor DeSantis, he had four years to do this. He only started to focus on this when he decided he wanted to run for president,” Christie said. “I think people see this as politically manipulative.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Christie on Florida slavery curriculum: DeSantis 'started this fire'