Florida Governor Ron DeSantis delivered an epic rebuttal of a woke reporter’s attempts to tear down him and Trump during a press conference delivered on Thursday, December 9. The press conference followed a dinner DeSantis and others had with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago and led to a very heated exchange with the reporter.
Trump, as background, has been going scorched earth on Biden and Newsom regarding the fires. In one Truth Social post, for example, he wrote, “Governor Gavin Newscum should immediately go to Northern California and open up the water main, and let the water flow into his dry, starving, burning State, instead of having it go out into the Pacific Ocean. It ought to be done right now, NO MORE EXCUSES FROM THIS INCOMPETENT GOVERNOR. IT’S ALREADY FAR TOO LATE!”
In another post, this one attacking Biden along with Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass, he wrote, “Fire is spreading rapidly for 3 days — ZERO CONTAINMENT. Nobody has ever seen such failed numbers before! Gross incompetence by Gavin Newscum and Karen Bass….And Biden’s FEMA has no money — all wasted on the Green New Scam! L.A. is a total wipeout!!!”
It was apparently posts like those, along with other posts from Trump and Republicans about political blame for the fires and the seemingly disastrously bad response to them, that led the reporter to question DeSantis about what is “appropriate,” asking if it is appropriate for President-elect Trump to criticize Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom as the wildfires rage.
Responding with obvious anger, Gov. DeSantis first asked whether it is appropriate for the media to use tragic public events like these to stoke division amongst Americans. He asked, “Is it appropriate for people in your industry to try to create division and to try to create narratives any time these things happen?”
Continued, DeSantis argued that, had Newsom been a Republican, the media would have crucified him for the awful wildfire response. He said, “Now, you’re not as interested in doing that because Newsom is a D. If Newsom was a Republican, you guys would go try … you would have him nailed to the wall for what they’re doing over there.”
DeSantis added, on that note, “I think your track record of politicizing these things is very, very bad.” Further, referencing the LA Mayor’s awful response to the fires and media’s shockingly blase coverage of her, he said, “You should have been there preparing and doing that, and yet I don’t see a lot of heat being directed [toward her].”
Building on that same message, he added that the media ought be balanced in how it treats Democrats and Republicans in matters like these, saying, “I’d like to see some balance on how this is done. You can criticize the president-elect, but you also have to hold these other people accountable, and I have not seen that.” Watch Governor DeSantis here:
Posting on X about the disaster, Gov. DeSantis said, “Our prayers are with everyone affected by the horrific fires in Southern California. When disaster strikes, we must come together to help our fellow Americans in any way we can. The state of Florida has offered help to assist the people of California in responding to these fires and in rebuilding communities that have been devastated.”
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