Crist Says Racism, Not Rubio Drove Him From GOP

By  //  May 7, 2014

ABOVE VIDEO: Talk show host Jorge Ramos calls out Charlie Crist for the reasons why he left the Republican Party.

Charlie Crist
Charlie Crist

Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist told Fusion’s Jorge Ramos the main reason he left the Republican Party wasn’t due to his extremely low polling in the Republican primary vs. Marco Rubio, but was due to his own observations that the GOP was unfriendly to President Obama, in his opinion, because the President is African American.

“Republicans are perceived as “anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-minority, [and] anti-gay,” he said, and they refuse to compromise with Obama. 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.”

Crist left the GOP to run as an independent during his failed 2010 Senate bid, when he lost in a GOP primary to Marco Rubio. He officially joined the Democratic Party soon after the 2012 elections, and before that, he supported Obama’s reelection bid.

Do you believe Crist’s motives were based on racism, or do you think his move was politically motivated? Comment below.