• Ron DeSantis took a personal shot at Joe Biden’s treatment of Hunter Biden’s four-year-old daughter.
  • The president has not reportedly met or publicly acknowledged the child.
  • DeSantis’ blow came as Vice President Kamala Harris attacks his state’s new education standards.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday took a personal shot at President Joe Biden as the governor railed against the White House’s criticism of controversial new Florida education standards that would highlight the benefits of slavery.

“The Harris-Biden administration is obsessed with Florida…yet they ignore the chaos at the border, crime-infested cities, economic malaise, and the military recruitment crisis,” DeSantis wrote on Twitter. “Maybe if Biden’s granddaughter moved to Florida he’d actually visit her.”

DeSantis’ barb comes as Republican politicians increasingly antagonize Biden over Hunter Biden’s four-year-old daughter in Arkansas. Hunter Biden initially disputed that he was the father before a paternity test proved otherwise. He and Luden Roberts, the girl’s mother, then fought over child support and related matters. They have since reached a settlement. 

Conservatives have highlighted how the dispute ended with Roberts dropping a request for the child to have Biden’s surname. Roberts told The New York Times that she and Hunter Biden reached a mutual decision about the surname. President Biden has not publicly acknowledged the child, whose name was not listed in the court records. 

DeSantis has struggled to dent former President Donald Trump’s commanding national lead, sparking concern among some of his donors and allies. The Florida governor built his national profile in large part on tussling with the White House.

Vice President Kamala Harris touched off the latest round on Thursday when she attacked newly adopted standards for how American history should be taught in the state. Harris zeroed in on one recommendation for middle schoolers that has touched off a national debate. Specifically, the standards call for students to be taught “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

“Just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery,” Harris said during a speech before the Delta Sigma Theta Convention in Indianapolis. “Thus insult us in an attempt to gaslight us and we will not stand for it.”

The Florida Education Association teachers union and the NAACP Florida State Conference have been harshly critical of the standards, the Miami Herald previously reported. In the face of criticism, the officials responsible for the language have refused to back down.

“Any attempt to reduce slaves to just victims of oppression fails to recognize their strength, courage and resiliency during a difficult time in American history,” Dr. William Allen and Dr. Frances Presley Rice, members of the working group that considered changes to how to teach African American history, said in a joint statement. “Florida students deserve to learn how slaves took advantage of whatever circumstances they were in to benefit themselves and the community of African descendants.” 

Harris is visiting Jacksonville on Friday afternoon where she is expected to attack the standards once more.

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