Florida Senate candidate Rep. Val Demings skipped the political event with Dem wanting to ‘divest’ into the police

Democratic Senate nominee Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., Skipped a political event he promoted hours before with a state representative supporting policies similar to the defund in the police movement.

Demings, who is running against Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., For the Senate seat, announced the Defending Choice Volunteer Launch event-a phone bank drive to encourage Democrats to participate in Orlando County, Florida, political events-that was scheduled for Thursday.

A poster for the event highlighted the presence of Demings as well as state representative Anna Eskamani, who represents Orlando in the state legislature. “Come call or knock on doors with the [Eskamani] and me at our Defending Choice Volunteer Launch, ”Demings said in the tweet.

Rubio’s campaign in the Senate called attention to Demings ’scheduled confrontation with a politician who called for police defunding while trying to campaign for pro-law enforcement.

RUBIO-DEMINGS FLORIDA SENATE BATTLE PUTS CRIME AND POLICE IN FRONT AND CENTER

Rep. Questioned. Val Demings was Attorney General Merrick Garland during the House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill, Oct. 21, 2021.
(Greg Nash/Pool via Reuters)

“As Val Demings tries to convince Floridians not to believe their own eyes, he spends his day with Florida’s Defund the Police, Green New Deal champion,” Rubio’s campaign tweeted before the scheduled event .

It’s unclear why Demings didn’t show up at the event. Demings and Eskamani’s campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

“While Val Demings spends millions of dollars on ads trying to convince Floridians not to believe their own eyes, he is campaigning with Florida’s own Defund the Police champion. Florida law enforcement knows that Marco Rubio is the only candidate they can count on to stand up for their interest in Washington, ”Elizabeth Gregory, director of communications for Marco Rubio for the Senate, told Fox News Digital.

RUBIO REFERS TO THE FORMER POLICE CHIEF DEMING CRIME

Eskamani, who at the event called Rubio a “slimy piece of sh–,” did not mention police at the event, according to audio obtained by Fox News Digital, but spoke about the importance of Demings’ campaign before midterm November election to protect access to abortion in Florida. After speaking for about seven minutes, Eskamani seemed to expect Deming to come and asked a few more minutes, according to the audio.

Demings is the former Orlando police chief, a fact that has made him attractive to national Democrats hoping to avoid association with the police movement’s defund. Demings ’past plays the role of“ preventing Democrats from GOP charges that they are soft on crime or holding extreme progressive ideologies, ”according to a Vanity Fair profile on Demings published on last week.

Si Sen. Marco Rubio speaks about the Helper Act.
(Fox News Digital/Lisa Bennatan)

Rubio’s team, however, sought to use Demings ’past statements on policing, as well as law enforcement numbers that contradict his stance, against him. Demings called the Minneapolis City Council’s push to dismantle and rebuild the police force “very thoughtful” in an interview with “CBS This Morning” on June 8, 2020, weeks after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer .

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Eskamani called for “demilitarization” the Orlando police department-where Demings served as police chief from 2007 to 2011-and suggested the city “divest into law enforcement, invest in community programs” in a campaign statement in 2020.

Demings released an ad in June in which he promised that in the Senate he would “protect Florida from bad ideas like removing police funding.”