Tallahassee Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum Thursday rejected claims that he misused official funds while in office, but admitted that he has been too trusting of people who may have had "ill will" in mind.
"I have been elected since I was 23 years old," Gillum told CNN "New Day" host John Berman.
"I grew up in many ways in this space...the mistake I was referring to is not assigning negative motives to anybody."
However, Gillum said that he's been an elected official for 15 years now, and has "never in any way compromised my values, my morals, or the law...the people in my community know me and they trust me."
A report surfaced Thursday that Gillum took a flight from Tallahassee to Tampa in 2016 that was paid for with office funds, and that he'd engaged in political activity on the trip, but Gillum denied that he'd used taxpayer dollars.
Gillum Thursday also accused President Donald Trump of providing "cover" to people who are racist, launching the attack after the president slammed him during a Florida rally on Wednesday.
During the rally, for Republican candidate Rep. Mark DeSantis, Trump accused Gillum of supporting "deadly sanctuary cities" and that he wants to "throw open your borders to drug dealers, human traffickers, gang members and criminal aliens."
"The president is attempting to use scare tactics, fear-mongering," Gillum said. "I just happen to believe they are sorely underestimating the people of my state. That's not the brand of politics that we want."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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