Kendrick Meek: Bill Clinton Didn't Tell Me to Drop Out of Senate Race

Making the rounds on several national television network news shows on Friday morning, Democrat Kendrick Meek lashed out at Independent Charlie Crist for fueling what he called false rumors that former President Bill Clinton had asked him to drop out of the Senate race.

``[Clinton] didn't ask me to drop out of the race,'' Meek told Fox & Friends. He said that longtime political mentor had asked him last week about ``rumors'' that he might possibly withdraw from the race.

Meek said he told Clinton that he was not going to bow out of the race. ```That's your decision,''' Meek recalled Clinton telling him during a conversation backstage at a rally in Florida.

He then slammed Crist for playing a political trick to damage his bid for the Senate. ``I don't operate like this, and the bottom line is, is that Charlie Crist does,'' Meek said. ``It's mind boggling.''

Meek said that Crist himself had called him during the campaign to urge him to leave the race. ``I told him I'm not getting out of the race,'' he said. ``I don't sell out on the people of Florida.''

Speaking on CNN's 'American Morning' show, Meek said he shot back at Crist that ``he should consider getting out of the race.''

The controversy that erupted Thursday comes late in a Senate campaign in which polls show Meek running a distant third behind Crist and front-runner Marco Rubio.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday showed Meek with only 15 percent of the vote and Gov. Charlie Crist just seven percentage points behind Rubio, with 42 percent.

The controversy erupted late Thursday when the Website Politico.com reported that Clinton, while campaigning with Meek last week in Florida, had twice asked him Meek to withdraw.

Source: Miami Herald

Kevin Eason is a freelance editorial cartoonist and illustrator from New Jersey. His brand of satire covers news events in politics, entertainment, sports and much more. Follow him on Facebook.