(Radio Iowa) – Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott says rival Ron DeSantis should be asked to clarify his position on Florida’s new black history curriculum. “As a country founded upon freedom, the greatest deprivation of freedom was slavery,” Scott said. “There was no silver lining in…slavery.” The curriculum includes a line that says slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.

Vice President Kamala Harris has said the new curriculum is an attempt to replace history with lies. DeSantis criticized Harris during remarks in Iowa yesterday (Thursday). DeSantis said the curriculum for Florida schools is a 200 page document that has very vivid details about the injustices of slavery. “Anyone that actually read that and listens to Kamala would know that she’s lying,” DeSantis says. “And that particular provision about the skills, that was in spite of slavery, not because of.”

Scott, the first black Republican Senator from the south in more than a century, told reporters in Ankeny last (Thursday) night slavery was about separating families and mutilating humans. “I would hope that every person in our country and certainly running for president would appreciate that and people have bad days, sometimes they regret what they say and we should ask them again to clarify their positions,” Scott said. “…As a guy who believes in Genesis 1:26, you know, the Bible’s very clear. He gave us a lot of authority, but not over each other as humans. Men and women were created to be free.”

Scott and DeSantis will be among the 13 presidential candidates to speak tonight (Friday) at the Iowa Republican Party’s fundraiser in Des Moines. It will be former President Donald Trump’s first in-person appearance at a multi-candidate event in Iowa since he announced his third campaign for the presidency last November. Vice President Harris will also be in Des Moines today (Friday) to talk with local activists about the legal challenge to Iowa’s new fetal heartbeat law that would ban most abortions in the state.