LAS VEGAS, NV - OCTOBER 20: U.S. Rep. and U.S. Senate candidate Jacky Rosen (D-NV) speaks during a rally at the Culinary Workers Union Hall Local 226 featuring former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on October 20, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Early voting for the midterm elections in Nevada begins today. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) Hear from the Democrats who took back the House Democratic congressional candidate Ilhan Omar is greeted by her husband's mother after appearing at her midterm election night party in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. November 6, 2018. REUTERS/Eric Miller Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., speaks to supporters after she was declared the winner over former Gov. Phil Bredesen in their race for the U.S. Senate Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, in Franklin, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) (CNN) — A racist robocall targeted Andrew Gillum days after the Tallahassee mayor won the Democratic nomination in the Florida governor’s race, giving him a shot at becoming the state’s first black chief executive. The 78-second prerecorded message, obtained by CNN, is narrated by a man speaking in a caricature of a black dialect with cartoonish jungle noises in the background. It ends with a disclaimer that it was paid for by The Road to Power, a white supremacist and anti-Semitic video podcast hosted by Scott Rhodes of Idaho. The phone message went to Florida residents, but it’s unclear how many received it. The Tallahassee Democrat first reported the robocall. The same neo-Nazi group recently sponsored robocalls in Iowa, using Mollie Tibbetts’ death to attack Latinos and promote white supremacy, the Des Moines Register reported. There have also been reports the group previously targeted local officials in California, Virginia and Washington state. The Gillum campaign’s communications director, Geoff Burgan, said the robocall is “reprehensible – and could only have come from someone with intentions to fuel hatred and seek publicity.” “Please don’t give it undeserved attention,” he said. The campaign of Gillum’s Republican opponent, Rep. Ron DeSantis, also denounced the robocall. “This is absolutely appalling and disgusting – and hopefully whoever is behind this has to answer for this despicable action,” DeSantis communications director Stephen Lawson said. “Our campaign has and will continue to focus solely on the issues that Floridians care about and uniting our state as we continue to build on our success,” Lawson said. DeSantis faced criticism earlier this week for saying during a Fox News appearance that Florida voters should not “monkey this up” by electing Gillum the day after he won the Republican primary for governor. DeSantis’ campaign denied the comments had anything to do with race. “Ron DeSantis was obviously talking about Florida not making the wrong decision to embrace the socialist policies that Andrew Gillum espouses. To characterize it as anything else is absurd,” said Stephen Lawson, the communications director for the DeSantis campaign.<doc-sep>Racist robocalls targeting Andrew Gillum, the first black nominee for Florida governor from a major party, have been placed to residents from an out-of-state white supremacist entity. Mr. Gillum, 39, the Tallahassee mayor and a progressive candidate who won an upset victory in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, will face Representative Ron DeSantis, 39, a Republican who embraced the style and policies of President Trump, in the November election. In the audio of one robocall placed on Friday and obtained by The New York Times, a man pretending to be Mr. Gillum can be heard talking in the exaggerated accent of a minstrel performer. “Well hello there,” it begins, “I is Andrew Gillum.” He then talks for a little over a minute about mud huts and unfair policing practices, and asks repeatedly for the listener’s vote. In the background are the sounds of drums and monkeys. The recording, reported on Friday by The Tallahassee Democrat, ends with a man saying that the message was paid for by the Road to Power, an Idaho-based website and podcast with white supremacist and anti-Semitic content.<doc-sep>The hotly contested race for the Florida governor’s mansion has turned nasty quickly, with one side accused of racism and the other taken to task over controversial financial donors, including the ubiquitous George Soros. The high-profile race has been described as a litmus test for America, as it sees Andrew Gillum, a Bernie Sanders-backed Democrat go up against Rep. Ron DeSantis, an avowed Trump supporter and Trump-endorsed Republican. Read more Gillum has come under fire for comments made to NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday, during which he thanked “everyday folks” for donating to his campaign — but also gave a special thank you to billionaires George Soros and Tom Steyer, two of the more controversial of his funders. “I’m obviously deeply appreciative of Mr. Soros, as well as Mr. Steyer, both men whom I’ve known for some time,” Gillum told NBC. Unlike some other progressive Democratic candidates standing for election in the November midterms, Gillum has not refused big money donations from the likes of Soros. In April, Gillum’s campaign raised $450,000, but more than half of that came from the Hungarian-American billionaire through a Gillum-affiliated political action committee called Forward Florida, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Soros also made two six-figure donations to Gillum in 2017 and offered another large cash infusion during the final weeks of campaigning during the Democratic primary. Despite the Soros money, Gillum had still been a dark horse in the race, polling in fourth place at around 16 percent weeks out from voting day. His win was a surprise to the Democratic establishment which was expecting a more moderate candidate to win the nomination. Gillum has brushed off the notion that his campaign was being bankrolled by billionaires who wield undue influence over American politics, saying that his campaign was “propped up by a lot of small donations” including from his mother, who he said was “on auto-deduct of $20 a month into our campaign”. Gillum’s opponent DeSantis, who currently represents Florida’s 6th district, has little ability to criticize the mega-donor funding, however, since his campaign too has been bankrolled by billionaires including the conservative Richard Uihlein and his wife Elizabeth, who are some of the top Republican donors in the country. DeSantis has also been accused of racism after recently warning Florida voters not to “monkey” things up by voting for Gillum, who is black. Gillum claimed the comment was a “dog whistle” to racists, but DeSantis denied any allegations of racism, saying that the comment had nothing to do with race. Some have questioned that denial, however, pointing to the allegation that the congressman was until recently a moderator for a group on Facebook which regularly posted racist comments and memes. The DeSantis campaign claimed that the candidate did not know he was part of the group and that he never had any active role in moderating it, but his wife, Casey DeSantis was still a member of the group as of last week. Read more While it’s possible DeSantis is sincere in his denial of racism, some unquestionable racists have indeed sought to target Gillum with an overtly racist robocall that has circulated around Florida and which refers to the Democrat as a “negro”. During the call, a narrator who claims to be Gillum speaks over background noise of drums and monkeys and tells the listener that Gillum will pass a law letting black people evade arrest “if the Negro know fo' sho' he didn't do nothin'” — among other racially charged statements. At the end of the call, a voice says that it was funded by The Road to Power, an anti-Semitic and white supremacist website and podcast. Gillum’s campaign has called the robocalls “reprehensible” and said they could only have come from someone “with intentions to fuel hatred and seek publicity”. DeSantis’ campaign also denounced the calls as “absolutely appalling and disgusting”. Any niceties ended there, however, with DeSantis accusing Gillum during a radio interview on Sunday, of planning to “turn Florida into Venezuela” with his left wing policies. Gillum and DeSantis will face off against each other November.<doc-sep>"If, after her life has now been brutally stolen from her, she could be brought back to life for just one moment and asked, 'What do you think now?' Mollie Tibbetts would say, 'Kill them all,' " an Iowa robo-call says. “Well, we don't have to kill them all, but we do have to deport them all. The Aztec hybrids known as mestizos are low-IQ, bottom-feeding savages and is why the country they infest are crime-ridden failures."<doc-sep>
(CNN) — Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum on Sunday said a robocall aimed at mocking his race was “deeply regrettable” and took aim at his Republican opponent for saying Florida voters should not “monkey this up” by electing Gillum. The 78-second prerecorded message, obtained by CNN, is narrated by a man speaking in a caricature of a black dialect with cartoonish jungle noises in the background. It ends with a disclaimer that it was paid for by The Road to Power, a white supremacist and anti-Semitic video podcast hosted by Scott Rhodes of Idaho. The phone message went to Florida residents, but it’s unclear how many received it. The Tallahassee Democrat first reported the robocall. Asked about the robocall, Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, told CNN’s “State of the Union, “I have to tell you I find this deeply regrettable.” Stephen Lawson, a spokesman for Gillum’s Republican opponent, Rep. Ron DeSantis, condemned the call, calling it “absolutely appalling and disgusting” and saying the campaign “will continue to focus solely on the issues that Floridians care about and uniting our state.” But he also faced criticism last week for saying during a Fox News appearance that Florida voters should not “monkey this up” by electing Gillum. DeSantis’ campaign denied the comments were racial. Gillum, on “State of the Union,” said DeSantis was pushing racist “dog whistles” with the comment. “We can have a challenge between ideas and around what we think the people of the state of Florida deserve,” Gillum later added. “What I don’t want the race to turn into is a race of name-calling. I want to make sure that we don’t racialize and, frankly, weaponize race as a part of the process, which is why I have called on my opponent to really work to rise above some of these things.” Gillum added that “people are taking their cues” from DeSantis and President Donald Trump. “We saw in Charlottesville (that) it can lead to dangerous outcomes,” he said, referencing last year’s lethal clashes between white nationalists and counterprotesters in Virginia. CNN’s Eric Bradner contributed to this report.