Harris and DeSantis ramp up their quickly growing feud

Vice President Kamala Harris dismissed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' challenge to debate his state's new Black history curriculum as "politically motivated," marking the latest escalation in a quickly growing feud between the former prosecutor and GOP presidential hopeful.

Harris, speaking in Florida Tuesday during a previously scheduled event, accused DeSantis - though not by name - of trying to legitimize the controversial standards through political gamesmanship.

"Well, I'm here in Florida," Harris said to widespread applause at the African Methodist Episcopal 20th Women's Missionary Society Quadrennial Convention. "And I will tell you, there is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact. There were no redeeming qualities of slavery."

The newly approved curriculum from the Florid Board of Education introduces standards that stated middle school students should be taught that enslaved people learned some skills they later used to their benefit. Harris has repeatedly called the standards "propaganda" meant to "replace history with lies," and divide the country.

In late July, the vice president went headfirst into the culture war issue when she quickly spoke against the standards in DeSantis' home state, just 24 hours after they were approved. Harris, a White House official told CNN, directed her team on a Thursday to set up an event in Florida after learning of what was approved - a day later, she delivered a fiery speech that ripped "so-called leaders" for willfully misleading children.

"This is unnecessary to debate whether enslaved people benefited from slavery. Are you kidding me? Are we supposed to debate that?" Harris said in Jacksonville at the time.

DeSantis, in turn, has trained his eye on the vice president, calling her a liar in the wake of her comments.