Seriously Andrew? Warning. It’s offensive to call Gillum by his name
Excerpt: Andrew Gillum said Wednesday that Ron DeSantis needs to put some “respect” on his name, after the former congressman continually referred to the Tallahassee mayor by his first name during the two contentious debates for Florida governor.
Speaking to a crowd of college students at historically black Florida Memorial University Thursday afternoon, Gillum asked a half-full auditorium if they’d seen Wednesday night’s debate at Broward College. The audience cheered.
“Thank you. At one point I started to feel bad for him. Not really, but really!” Gillum said. “I felt surely somebody prepared him a little bit better than this to come on this stage and have nothing to say about what he wants to do for the people of the state of Florida.”
Gillum, who also debated DeSantis Sunday on CNN, mockingly pointed out that his opponent, a former congressman, continued to call him “Andrew” on stage in both events — a decision that some politicos found to be poor form. Gillum generally referred to DeSantis, a congressman who resigned his post shortly after winning the GOP nomination for governor, as either Mr. DeSantis or congressman.
“I met him for the first time the other night and then all of a sudden, without invitation, he was calling me only as Andrew. Between the two of us, he quit his job in Congress, I’m a sitting mayor, and he had the nerve to address me only as Andrew?” Gillum said. “I wanted to correct him, y’all, but I didn’t want to be petty. So, we just we pushed all the way through.”
Bottom Line: Aside from the obvious pettiness of this situation I recalled, having interviewed “The honorable, established mayor Mr. Gillum The Great” (think that’s sufficient?), multiple times during the primary process and occasionally referring to him as Andrew, you know, because that’s his name. Going back to the tape he didn’t seem to upset with me. Here’s an interview where I apparently disrespected the wannabe great one twice:
https://ihr.fm/2EMBikf
What’s more is that here’s Bernie Sanders rallying on behalf of King Gillum “In Andrew, you will have a Governor who understands that the future of this state and the future of our country is with the young people,”.
For some reason that wasn’t offensive to Andrew either. OMG, I did it again. In the grand scheme of petty politics this is a new level of absurdity.