DeSantis Appointee Quits Amid Racist Picture

A Florida man has resigned in disgrace after a photo showing him wearing Ku Klux Klan garb was revealed, according to a new report.

Only, in this case, the Florida man just so happens to be a local government official who was appointed by the state’s suspected white supremacist governor to be a commissioner in a county that is predominately Black.

It’s a strange development that was first reported by the Tallahassee Democrat in an effort to explain why now-former Gadsden County Board Commissioner Jeffrey Moore abruptly left his post last week.

Moore has not publicly acknowledged the photo. However, judging from Moore’s decision to not only quit his post but also end his campaign for election in November, it would seem that he is indeed the person in the photo shown wearing a KKK hat, robe and broad smile while raising both arms outward in a pose traditionally associated with the Klan.

The Tallahassee Democrat speculated that the photo may have been taken at “a Halloween party years earlier.”

Of course, that is no solace to the Gadsden County constituents — 55% of whom are Black, according to Census data — for whom Moore was charged with working.

As of Wednesday morning, there was no mention of Moore on the website for the Gadsden County Board of County Commissioners, all of whom are Black and Democrats.

Gadsden County Commissioner Brenda Holt told the Tallahassee Democrat that a “local citizen” texted her the photo.

“I really got this gut feeling in the bottom of my stomach,” Holt said. “It’s just total disrespect.”

Church officials in Gadsden County want answers immediately and scheduled a press conference for Wednesday demanding both Moore and DeSantis offer explanations for both the photo and the vacated spot on the board of commissioners.

Tracey Stallworth, a local pastor taking part in Wednesday’s press conference, said he saw the photo before Moore resigned.

“It’s a very sad day in our history and a sad time for this county … the blackest county in the state,” he said. “This is not OK.”

Moore is notably a Republican like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who this past July appointed the former tax law specialist for the Florida Department of Revenue.

In his brief letter of resignation, Moore didn’t offer a reason for quitting.

“Please accept this notification of my resignation, effective this date of Sept. 23, 2022, from the Gadsden County Board of County Commissioners,” Moore wrote Friday in a letter addressed to DeSantis’ office. “Thank you for the opportunity to have served in the position, however for personal reasons I am no longer able to continue.”

This is far from the only scandal rooted in race that DeSantis is linked to.

Earlier this month, Florida’s governor sent migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in a political stunt meant to slam the Biden Administration’s immigration efforts but instead invited comparisons to segregation.

DeSantis has until recently also aligned himself with former President Donald Trump’s racist policies and has vehemently opposed critical race theory being taught in Florida.

In addition, DeSantis made national headlines back in 2018 for warning Florida voters not to “monkey this up” by voting for Andrew Gillum, who came agonizingly close to being elected the state’s first African American governor. That is to speak nothing of DeSantis’ long history of associating with white nationalists.

Oh, did we mention that DeSantis once dismissed a donor using calling former President Barack Obama a Muslim and the N-word as a “mistake”?

That is who appointed Jeffery Moore to an all-Black panel of county commissioners.

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