Then-Senator Obama (D-IL) said (0:29 in the video below): "I come from Chicago. It’s not as if it’s just Republicans who have monkeyed around with elections in the past. Sometimes Democrats have, too. You know, whenever people are in power, they have this tendency to try to tilt things in their direction."
Obama called for establishing a "voting rights division" within the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat "voter fraud" and what he said were efforts to "discourage people to vote."
On Wednesday, Florida Republican gubernatorial nominee Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) advised Floridians not to "monkey this up" by selecting a "socialist agenda" via a Democrat governor.
News media outlets such as The Hill and CNN framed the comment as racial, given that DeSantis’s Democrat opponent, Andrew Gillum, is black.
Emphasis added.