MONTICELLO, Fla. (AP) -- The leading Republican gubernatorial candidate condemned white supremacists and hatred in a speech in which he also said people shouldn't be fighting over Confederate statues.
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Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said Tuesday evening that in current times, the country needs to focus on eradicating hatred instead of history.
He made his remarks in reference to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, that began after white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members held a rally as the city grappled with whether to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
He said history needs to be a lesson, including America's part in fighting back Nazi Germany and the hatred it represented. But Americans shouldn't have a "big fight about something that happened 150 years ago."