The Left Is Doing Everything It Can To Elect Ron DeSantis As The Next President Of The United States

It just doesn’t realize it.

Attacking him constantly gives him a chance to defend himself and get on TV doing it. There is no quicker way to political stardom on the right than standing up to the media. And Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has done a stellar job of it.

It makes it even easier when the attacks are fabricated.The funny thing is that I can’t wait for the pieces coming from the left that will read “despite the controversies surrounding him, Governor DeSantis remains a popular figure on the right”. I bet they’ll manage to work in the word “polarizing” too.

Warning, this will be a long post with lots of quoting and not much commentary from me.

Once again from the network that brought you “Rathergate”:

CBS Deceptively Edits Reporter’s Interaction With FL Governor Ron DeSantis. Here’s What He Really Said. | The Daily Wire

CBS’s “60 Minutes” deceptively edited an exchange that reporter Sharyn Alfonsi had with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) two weeks ago about the way the Sunshine State has rolled out its vaccination program.

Transcript of the interaction is featured below (All words appearing in bold were cut out by CBS News):

Sharyn Alfonsi: Publix, as you know, donated $100,000 to your campaign, and then you rewarded them with the exclusive rights to distribute the vaccination in Palm Beach—

Ron DeSantis: So, first of all, that — what you’re saying is wrong. That’s—

Sharyn Alfonsi: How is that not pay-to-play?

Ron DeSantis: —that, that’s a fake narrative. So, first of all, when we did, the first pharmacies that had it were CVS and Walgreens. And they had a long-term care mission. So they were going to the long-term care facilities. They got the vaccine in the middle of December, they started going to the long-term care facilities the third week of December to do LTCs. So that was their mission. That was very important. And we trusted them to do that. As we got into January, we wanted to expand the distribution points. So, yes, you had the counties, you had some drive-through sites, you had hospitals that were doing a lot, but we wanted to get it into communities more. So we reached out to other retail pharmacies — Publix, Walmart — obviously CVS and Walgreens had to finish that mission. And we said, we’re going to use you as soon as you’re done with that. For Publix, they were the first one to raise their hand, say they were ready to go. And you know what, we did it on a trial basis. I had three counties. I actually showed up that weekend and talked to seniors across four different Publix. How was the experience? Is this good? Should you think this is a way to go? And it was 100% positive. So we expanded it, and then folks liked it. And I can tell you, if you look at a place like Palm Beach County, they were kind of struggling at first in terms of the senior numbers. I went, I met with the county mayor. I met with the administrator. I met with all the folks in Palm Beach County, and I said, “Here’s some of the options: we can do more drive-through sites, we can give more to hospitals, we can do the Publix, we can do this.” They calculated that 90% of their seniors live within a mile and a half of a Publix. And they said, “We think that would be the easiest thing for our residents.” So, we did that, and what ended up happening was, you had 65 Publix in Palm Beach. Palm Beach is one of the biggest counties, one of the most elderly counties, we’ve done almost 75% of the seniors in Palm Beach, and the reason is because you have the strong retail footprint. So our way has been multifaceted. It has worked. And we’re also now very much expanding CVS and Walgreens, now that they’ve completed the long term care mission.

Sharyn Alfonsi: The criticism is that it’s pay-to-play, governor.

Ron DeSantis: And it’s wrong. It’s wrong. It’s a fake narrative. I just disabused you of the narrative. And you don’t care about the facts. Because, obviously, I laid it out for you in a way that is irrefutable.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Well, I— I was just—

Ron DeSantis: And, so, it’s clearly not.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Isn’t there the nearest Publix —

Ron DeSantis: No, no, no. You’re wrong.

Sharyn Alfonsi: —30 miles away.

Ron DeSantis: You’re wrong. You’re wrong. Yes, sir?

Sharyn Alfonsi: That’s actually a fact.

Publix, Democrat State Official Blast ‘Absolutely False And Offensive’ CBS ‘60 Minutes’ Smear Of DeSantis | The Daily Wire

“The irresponsible suggestion that there was a connection between campaign contributions made to Governor DeSantis and our willingness to join other pharmacies in support of the state’s vaccine distribution efforts is absolutely false and offensive,” Publix said in a scathing statement slamming the “60 Minutes” segment. “We are proud of our pharmacy associates for administering more than 1.5 million doses of vaccine to date and for joining other retailers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia to do our part to help our communities emerge from the pandemic.”

Former Florida state Representative Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat, slammed “60 Minutes” over the segment, saying that DeSantis’ office did not push for selecting Publix. Moskowitz is the director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management and has overseen the state’s response to the pandemic, “including rolling out the vaccine distribution and ensuring masks get to front-line workers,” The Sun Sentinel reported.

Not just the Daily Wire.

West Palm Beach Mayor Dave Kerner (D) Blasts 60 Minutes Report on Florida Vaccine Rollout: 'Intentionally False' – PJ Media

WATCH: CBS and @60Minutes excluded context from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in which he explains the steps his government took to make the decision to partner with Publix on vaccine distribution.

The 60 Minutes version is first, followed by the full answer from DeSantis. pic.twitter.com/2KRQKPLOe7

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 5, 2021

 

'Intentionally False': Another Florida Dem Absolutely Shreds '60 Minutes' Hit Piece Against Ron DeSantis – RedState

Democratic mayor of Palm Beach County absolutely flames @60Minutes for their hit on DeSantis and Publix, calling their reporting "not just based on bad information - it was intentionally false." pic.twitter.com/AfthuPj4MP

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) April 5, 2021

Hoo boy.

CBS is in some serious hot water.

Mollie Heminway at the Federalist nails it:

‘60 Minutes’ Ignores Democrat Governors’ Scandals, Invents One About DeSantis

Rather than cover actual scandals involving Democrat governors and their botched responses to COVID, CBS’ “60 Minutes” tried to invent a scandal involving Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ distribution of vaccines. To push the false narrative and protect its favored governors, “60 Minutes” refused to interview people who disputed its false narrative, selectively edited video to hide facts, and omitted data that debunked its thesis and accurately describe Florida’s success.

It’s not that “60 Minutes” couldn’t have reported on real scandals involving governors and COVID, if it wanted to. New York’s Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a media darling despite his many failures, sent COVID patients into long-term care facilities full of vulnerable people, and then covered it up.  California’s Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom has imposed draconian lockdown measures that have crushed his state’s economy, its schools, and the entire population of the state. He’s currently facing a recall attempt from citizens livid at his handling.

To protect these men, the Democrat-allied news show instead targeted Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, widely recognized for his leadership during the pandemic. Unlike most political leaders, DeSantis has balanced the health concerns from the pandemic with the public and societal health concerns of harsh lockdowns that destroy economies, children’s lives, the ability of people to provide for their families, and the right of people to worship and live their lives.

And Hemingway reminds us (as I have too):

“60 Minutes,” known best for pushing obviously forged documents weeks prior to the 2004 election in order to harm Republican President George W. Bush, took the approach of claiming that Florida’s vaccine distribution has been uniquely “chaotic” and the result of some ill-defined “pay to play” conspiracy theory developed by its reporter Sharyn Alfonsi.

And:

No one claims that Publix did a bad job with the vaccine distribution, or that they inappropriately pocketed the money from the program, which has been widely viewed as successful. Alfonsi’s position seems to be that since Publix made a typical contribution to DeSantis, he should have banned the grocery chain’s hundreds of pharmacy locations from helping distribute the vaccine to Florida’s vulnerable and aging population.

Florida works with 1,600 pharmacies throughout the state to distribute vaccines, including 730 Publix pharmacies, more than 150 CVS locations, more than 125 Sam’s Club and Walmart locations, and more than 70 Winn-Dixie locations.

DeSantis’s office offered multiple experts to talk Alfonsi off the ledge, but she absolutely refused to interview them.

Again, this is not just bad reporting. It’s not even spin. This is blatant and “intentionally false”. It is a deceptive propaganda piece. Everyone involved with it should be fired.

Oh, that #FakeNews