Jesse Watters Doubles Down on Ron DeSantis' Claim That Slavery 'Benefited' Enslaved People: 'Historical Fact'

"That is not controversial," Watters said while speaking about Florida's new academic standard on 'The Five'

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is getting support from Jesse Watters.

Last week, the Florida State Board of Education approved new academic standards that will require middle schools to teach students that enslaved people "developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."

Vice President Kamala Harris was the first to speak out about the guidelines in a speech at Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.'s 56th national convention in Indianapolis Thursday, stating that they pushed "revisionist history."

"Just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery," Harris, 58, said. "They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it."

Related: Florida Middle Schoolers Will Now Be Taught That Slavery Had ‘Personal Benefit’ for Enslaved People

Watters, 45, criticized Harris' remarks on The Five and argued. "This is well documented among historians," Watters claimed. "This is historical fact that slaves did develop skills while they were enslaved and used those skills as blacksmiths, in agriculture, tailoring, in the shipping business, to then use to benefit themselves and their families once they were freed."

Stating that the issue is "not controversial," Watters claimed that it "actually speaks to the resistance and the aptitude of the enslaved African Americans who were at the time able to better themselves and able to improve their situation despite brutal, brutal conditions."

Related: Kamala Harris Addresses Florida's New Mandate to Teach About Slavery's 'Benefit': 'An Attempt to Gaslight Us'

His remarks echoed those made during Jesse Watters Primetime on Friday in which he defended the curriculum by stating that no one is arguing slaves benefited from slavery."

"No one is saying that. It’s not true," he added, per Mediaite. "They’re teaching how Black people developed skills during slavery in some instances that could be applied for their own personal benefit.”

In his own defense of the new standard, DeSantis, 44, said Friday that schools will show enslaved people could "parlay" the skills they were forced to learn.

“They’re probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life," he said in an event in Utah. He added that "scholars" were behind the standards and they are "rooted in whatever is factual."

However, DeSantis also sought to distance himself from the standards, telling reporters, "I didn't do it. I wasn't involved in it."

The changes to the state's curriculum come in response to the 2022 "Stop WOKE Act," which stated that race must be taught in "an objective manner" that does not "indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view." The measure pushed far-right lawmakers' rhetoric that teaching Black history makes White people feel ashamed, instructing that no student should be made to feel "guilt" or "responsibility" for actions previously committed by members of the same race.

Related: Ron DeSantis Defends New Florida Curriculum to Teach Slavery’s ‘Benefit,’ Says ‘Scholars’ Are Behind It

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According to the new education guidelines, middle school teachers must now teach students about "the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation)." A benchmark clarification listed in the standards includes the note that teachers should also instruct that enslaved people developed skills, "in some instances... for their personal benefit."

They were also a discussion on Monday's episode of The View, which saw co-host Ana Navarro's audio cut briefly as she expressed her frustration stating, “I live in Florida, I have been spitting mad about the culture wars that Ron DeSantis has been creating, so when he says he has nothing to do with it, that's bulls---. He has created the environment that's led to this.”

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