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Neo-Nazis overload Floridians with racist robocalls about black candidate

Neo-Nazis are inundating Floridians with racist robocalls mocking a black candidate for governor — prompting the candidate to speak out Sunday against the campaign.

“I want to make sure that we don’t racialize, and, frankly, weaponize, race as a part of this process,” Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, a Democrat, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The calls come after Gillum’s Republican opponent Ron DeSantis stirred up controversy in an interview in which he implored voters not to “monkey this up” by casting a ballot for Gillum — which he denied had any racial connotation.

The calls — paid for by the anti-Semitic, white supremacist website The Road to Power — feature someone posing as Gillum using an exaggerated minstrel voice, as well as jungle noises, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

The neo-Nazi group is linked to Scott Rhodes — also known as Scott Platek — of Sandpoint, Idaho, and has also sent out racist messages following the murder of an Iowa college student by an illegal Mexican immigrant.

DeSantis called the messages “absolutely appalling and disgusting.”

“I’m pleased to see [Republicans] decry those robocalls. But it’s also important that Ron DeSantis take control and ownership of his own rhetoric and words,” Gillum told “Meet the Press” on Sunday, apparently referring to the “monkey” comment.

The messages targeted the state capital of Tallahassee, where Gillum serves as mayor.

Also on Sunday, Gillum tried to downplay his connection to an FBI corruption probe centered on two land development deals in the northern Florida city that has already resulted in a subpoena for his close friend and 2014 mayoral campaign volunteer Adam Corey.

“We want to make sure that any individual that participated in that is held fully accountable. The good news is that it doesn’t involve my government or myself. We have all been fully cooperating,” Gillum told CNN.

Meanwhile, DeSantis went on the radio Sunday and slammed Gillum as a “far-left socialist fringe” candidate who “wants to turn Florida into Venezuela” — where hyperinflation under socialist leader Nicolas Maduro has left residents struggling to afford basic necessities.

“He wants to raise taxes in Florida 40 percent. He wants a single-payer health care system in Florida, which would bankrupt the state. He wants to abolish ICE and doesn’t believe in doing any type of immigration enforcement. He wants to turn Florida into Venezuela,” DeSantis said on the “Cats Roundtable” radio show.