Charlie Crist, who is campaigning for a
second term as Florida's governor, this time as a Democrat, has said
that racism, sexism and homophobia in the Republican Party were
behind his decision to switch parties.
Appearing on cabler Fusion's America
on Tuesday, Crist told host Jorge Ramos that he “just couldn't
take it anymore.”
“I saw what was happening with the
Republican Party,” Crist
said. “They're perceived now as being anti-woman,
anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-education, anti-environment. I just
wasn't comfortable.”
Ramos challenged Crist, saying he fled
the GOP in 2010 when it became clear that now-Senator Marco Rubio was
going to be the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate. Crist ran
the race as an independent.
“No, I left the Republican Party
because the Republican leadership went off the cliff,” Crist
responded.
“I couldn't be consistent with myself
and my core beliefs, and stay with a party that was so unfriendly
toward the African-American president, I'll just go there. I was a
Republican and I saw the activists and what they were doing, it was
intolerable to me,” he said. (The video is embedded on this page.
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In 2008, Crist backed passage of
Florida's constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual
couples, a decision he's since called “a mistake.”