Credit: PHOTO VIA DESANTIS/TWITTER
Gov. Ron DeSantis doubled down Tuesday on his controversial contention that roads are constructed without racial prejudice, blasting the idea as part of the “woke-ification of federal policy.”

The Governor, appearing in Miami highlighting resiliency spending, launched into a larger critique of spending priorities in Democratic-controlled Washington when he again mocked the idea that any such political intent went into road construction.

“They’re saying that highways are racially discriminatory,” DeSantis groused. “I don’t know how a road can be that.”

DeSantis has addressed this topic before, and in doing so subtly targeted a member of the Joe Biden administration.

The Governor in November took a brief shot at U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The jab came after Buttigieg commented on how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework would address “racism that went into those design choices” of 20th century highways that divided many major cities and destroyed neighborhoods.

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When a reporter asked DeSantis in November about the infrastructure bill’s reparations provisions last year, the Governor largely deflected but not without taking a swipe at Buttigieg.

“I heard some stuff, some weird stuff from the Secretary of Transportation trying to make this about social issues,” DeSantis said. “To me, a road’s a road.”

Buttigieg — whose past political experience includes serving as Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and running as a Democratic presidential candidate — first made the observation during a White House press conference last year.

“I’m still surprised that some people were surprised when I pointed to the fact that if a highway was built for the purpose of dividing a White and a Black neighborhood, or if an underpass was constructed such that a bus carrying mostly Black and Puerto Rican kids to a beach — or that would have been — in New York was designed too low for it to pass by, that that obviously reflects racism that went into those design choices,” Buttigieg said. “I don’t think we have anything to lose by confronting that simple reality, and I think we have everything to gain by acknowledging it and then dealing with it.”
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Renzo Downey of Florida Politics contributed to this report.

This article first appeared at Florida Politics.

This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2022.