A video on Twitter of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) supporters went viral after supporters of Democratic candidate Charlie Crist accused the crowd of being racist.
The video, which has since been deleted, showed a crowd at a debate chanting for DeSantis. Some supporters of Crist accused the crowd of chanting “refried beans,” which was interpreted as racist rhetoric towards Crist’s running mate, who is Latina.
“In case you hadn’t seen this-Desantis supporters shouting ‘refired beans’ at Karla as she was walking into the theater for the debate,” said one user in a now-deleted tweet. Sad state of politics to say the least.”
Karla Hernandez, Crist’s running mate for Lieutenant Governor, is a first-generation American from Honduras.
However, after the video went viral, a number of people, including DeSantis’ campaign spokesperson, said that the protesters were chanting “Keep Florida Free.”
The Daily Dot was unable to view the video, as it has been deleted from most social media platforms. “Keep Florida Free” is a rallying cry for DeSantis and was used as a hashtag for the debate.
In the wake of being called out, users deleted their tweets about the chant.
“I deleted my tweet saying DeSantis supporters were chanting ‘refried beans’ at Karla Hernandez and regret only having one source at the scene before tweeting that,” said ex-Daily Show writer Pete Dominick in a since-deleted tweet. “They were chanting ‘Keep Florida Free.’”
Republicans were furious with the allegation.
“You people will lie about anything to create racism where there isn’t any,” one user said.
“Imagine being so desperate to find racism that you mishear ‘Keep Florida Free’ as… ‘Refried Beans,’” said another.
“bro the projection tho, you have to execute some mighty fine mental gymnastics to hear ‘refried beans’ for ‘Keep Florida free,’” said a third.
Two weeks out from Election Day, Crist is far behind in the polls.
The Crist campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
