JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — During Action News Jax’s extended Election Night coverage, a discussion with our panel of experts touched on the deep partisan divide in Northeast Florida.
Action News Jax’s Emily Turner sat down with former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry (R), current Florida House Rep. Angie Nixon (D), and University of North Florida political science professor Dr. Michael Binder as results came in on election night.
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As the 11 p.m. hour approached on the Action News Jax NOW stream special, Curry and Nixon spoke about how they believe each party views the other.
After Curry said that Democrats think President Donald Trump’s supporters are “trash,” Nixon spoke about how she believed rhetoric from Republicans led to events like the 2023 racially motivated Dollar General shooting that killed 3 people in Jacksonville, and an 18-year-old being arrested after holding a Trump sign with a machete outside of the Beaches Branch Library during early voting.
Here is the full exchange between the two:
Curry: “The Democrats believe that Trump supporters are trash, this cycle. Last cycle, it was deplorables. Right? That’s how Trump supporters are viewed. I also think what you’re going to find when this election’s over is people are going to be surprised by people, demographics, that typically vote Democrat are going to have voted for President Trump in this election. That’s coming.”
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Turner: “Final thoughts, Angie Nixon, go ahead.”
Nixon: “We don’t think Trump voters are trash. We think Trump is trash.”
Curry: “The President said it.”
Nixon: “I want to be clear about that. And his, Trump’s participants in his rally, called American citizens trash. Like, literally. Right? And he didn’t speak out against that. Do not get me started on rhetoric, Mayor Curry. Because the rhetoric of your party caused three members of my community to get slaughtered in my district. Because you basically just have a Governor and a Party who continually attacks and villainizes, like, the teaching of things like true African-American history. They devalue Black lives and you’re putting targets on our backs. There was a young man, there were young men, young boys in Neptune Beach, with machetes. We don’t see Kamala Harris’ supporters walking around with machetes. The audacity! Like, I mean, you all should be so outraged. And those were the children, so imagine the household they come out of. I fear for my daughter’s life. Like, that is wild to me. And for you to say we have the rhetoric out of our mouths because we called y’all trash? Y’all are walking around with machetes. Your children. Chastise them. Look inward at your party and tell them to stop with the rhetoric and the lies and the blatant disinformation.”
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Turner: “And just to be clear, when you talk about lives lost, you’re talking about the Dollar General shooting?”
Nixon: “Yes, the Dollar General shooting. Yes, because constantly, you have an attack on woke, stop woke. What does woke mean? Like honestly? That attack is basically on Blackness.”
Curry: “That was a tragic day in Jacksonville’s history for sure. To blame Governor DeSantis is just below the belt. But, I mean, you’re entitled to your opinion, it’s a free country.”
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Turner: “And do you have any rebuttals to some of the rhetoric that she’s talking about?”
Curry: “Well, yeah, I mean, she just said that you don’t think Trump voters are trash and the party tried to clear it up, but President Biden said it out loud! It was on television, you can look it up online, so it happened.”
Trump was declared the winner of the presidency over Harris early Wednesday morning.
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