Right-wing critics are targeting Andrew Gillum over his ties to the Dream Defenders, a group that advocates for ending prison privatization.

Florida’s GOP gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis criticized Gillum for signing a “radical manifesto” written by the social justice organization during a Sunday night debate, according to Politifact.

"They say Israel is a genocidal apartheid state. They attack law enforcement and the police. So that to me is very divisive," DeSantis said. "I don't think he should have signed the Dream Defenders pledge. … If you want to unify Florida, taking positions about Israel like that, that may be unifying if you're running for the mayor of the Gaza strip. It ain't unifying here."

Gillum said he had “no idea” what DeSantis was referring to and said his opponent "used to moderate a xenophobic, racist Facebook page."

He also denied being anti-law enforcement.

“The only thing that I said is that as Governor, I will not see private prisons operating here in the state of Florida,” he said.

“If you want to know about my record with police, because I have public defenders and sheriffs all over this state who endorse me in this race for Governor, we hired more law enforcement officers so they could do their job.”

DeSantis took his criticism to Twitter following the debate and quoted a couple of lines from The Freedom Papers, a document outlining The Dream Defenders’ values.

"Police and prisons have no place in justice…" "Police were never meant to serve me and you." @AndrewGillum signed this pledge. https://t.co/X8O9ihlcB8

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantisFL) October 22, 2018

The organization corrected DeSantis and told him Gillum signed a different document, The Freedom Pledge.

He signed the Freedom Pledge, which for the record, is different than the Freedom Papers. Tell your Comms manager to put the phone down and coach you through what to do with your face on stage. https://t.co/aI3Cy4v7cK

— Dream Defenders (@Dreamdefenders) October 22, 2018

Dream Defenders spokeswoman Nailah Summers explained the difference to Politico.

“Our ideology is different from what we asked of politicians. We know they’d never share the same ideals because we're leftists, so we just asked that they prioritize different things in the pledge,” Summers said.

“The pledge was written to do two things: get politicians to stop taking money from private prisons and the gun lobby; and get them to put more of the state budget into the root causes of violence, which all involve poverty, instead of into police and prisons,” Summers explained. “If every Floridian had [a] quality public education (this includes treating teachers right), healthcare, decent housing and jobs, our crime rates would plummet. You’d think a sheriff’s association would want that.”

Summers insisted the group is not working for Gillum or vice versa.

“We’ve always been very clear, we are not in lockstep with Andrew Gillum, and he’s not in lockstep with us,” she said.

Dream Defenders assert 30 of Florida’s Democratic politicians, including the other three Democratic governor candidates, signed the pledge.

Despite the repeated distinctions, the right-wing’s criticism of Gillum has been unrelenting.

Sheriffs throughout the state have been asking @AndrewGillum to withdraw from the Dream Defenders pledge he signed that has a plan to defund law enforcement. Gillum has a past of not listening to police officers advice. Crime will go up astronomically if he’s our Governor.

— Hunter Pollack (@PollackHunter) October 25, 2018

Andrew Gillum is not going to win as an anti-NRA candidate.

This is Florida. Everyone has a gun.

Andrew Gillum wants to ban all hand guns and he signed a pledge with the Dream Defenders to ban police.

How do you think that will work out?

Not well.

Vote for @RepDeSantis.

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) October 24, 2018

Andrew Gillum is a strong supporter of the radical group Dream Defenders, who want to abolish police and prisons. Gillum's policies and extreme friends would make Florida less safe. #FLGovDebate
pic.twitter.com/uIFkl6GFMp

— The RGA (@The_RGA) October 24, 2018

Tonight, Andrew Gillum ‘had no idea’ that he signed an anti-police pledge but the fact is that Gillum has a history of ignoring law enforcement and supporting radical, anti-law enforcement groups like Dream Defenders.https://t.co/4OoE1eIFye

— GOP (@GOP) October 22, 2018

Gillum has not commented on his connection to the organization since the debate.

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Dream Defenders

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