Within hours of the Florida Primary offering voters a stark contrast between a Bernie Sanders-backed progressive and a Donald Trump-allied Congressman for Governor, the latter took the race straight into the abyss of racist mud-slinging.

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum had just stunned the national political establishment, defying every poll to win the Democratic Primary and become the first African-American to win a major party nomination to run for Florida governor.  Vermont Senator and progressive icon Bernie Sanders had campaigned for Gillum, who is unabashed and proud of championing progressive policies.

Congressman Ron DeSantis also upset the establishment, this time on the Republican side.  He barely campaigned and didn't say much about local or state issues, but he did appear on the conservative TV outlet Fox News dozens of times and was endorsed by Donald Trump.  To win with such an unorthodox strategy defied not just party elders, but the US political maxim "All Politics is Local".

He appeared on Fox again on the morning after the Primary, where he doled out backhanded compliments to Gillum, calling him "an articulate spokesman".  But he argued against voters picking Gillum for governor by saying, "The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state."

The reference wasn't direct, and the DeSantis team claimed he only meant that Floridians shouldn't vote for a Democrat after years of Republican rule.  And DeSantis had his defenders.  But given the lengthy history of US and European racists comparing black people to monkeys, people on both sides of the political divide considered it a "dog whistle" meant to racially insult Mayor Gillum and fire up the part of the Trump base that Hillary Clinton famously referred to as "deplorables".

Of course, democrats went on the offensive.  Some of the condemnation came from the TV channel that gave DeSantis most of his national exposure.

"A little while ago, we had Ron DeSantis, the Republican nominee for governor in Florida on for an interview to discuss the Florida election," said Fox News anchor Sandra Smith.  "We do not condone this language and wanted to make our viewers aware that he has since clarified his statement," she added.

Later on the opinion show "The Five", the conservative panel agreed that DeSantis would have to apologize. 

As an African American and as the former chairman of the Republican Party, Michael Steelehas heard this sort of racial slur before, and he's not cutting DeSantis any slack.  Steele pointed out that "monkey this up" just isn't a phrase in English vernacular, and said DeSantis deserved to be pilloried because "that's how white folks talk about black men who are successful."

Eventually, Gillum responded personally to DeSantis' remarks, and tried to glue him to his biggest backer:  "It's very clear that Mr. DeSantis is taking a page directly from the campaign manual of Donald Trump," Mr. Gillum said.  "I think he's got another thing coming to him if he thinks that in today's day and age Florida voters are going to respond to that level of derision and division - they're sick of it.  What we're trying to offer in this race is a North Star for where we want to go as a state," he added.

"In the handbook of Donald Trump they no longer do whistle calls - they're now using full bullhorns."