You know you are over the target when you are taking flak. Democrats are deathly afraid of Ron DeSantis. Democrats like Rebekah Jones claimed DeSantis’s COVID response was falsified although her claims have been roundly debunked. No matter, Democrats still hold her in Joan of Arc-like regard. Charlie Crist has done little but lie about DeSantis since his nomination. For instance, Crist claimed that DeSantis had not condemned the J6 riot. That was a bald-faced lie. Even Politico called it a lie. Biden and his two press secretaries have lied and gaslit about DeSantis. Why? Because Ron DeSantis is a threat. Because he’s a threat to the Democrats’ control of Washington, they and their media allies are marshaling the troops.
Politico produced a hit-piece on Monday with the theme that Florida had the nerve to ask for federal disaster relief funds. Politico did so in the context of attacking DeSantis. It alerted readers with a ridiculous tweet:
“The President’s wallet”? Federal disaster relief monies are not “the President’s money” — every penny of federal relief assistance going to assist Florida is the people’s money, not Joe Biden’s. It’s a nakedly partisan attack that was roundly mocked on Twitter. Christina Pushaw’s response was perfect and apt.
Politico isn’t known for balanced coverage and they didn’t disappoint with the article, published on Monday. The lede reads thusly:
Gov. Ron DeSantis has been a persistent critic of President Joe Biden on nearly every policy front as he moves toward a likely potential 2024 presidential bid. But the Florida Republican likes one thing about the president: his wallet.
What does criticizing Biden for objectively bad policies have to do with disaster relief? Well, nothing, of course. The article, without a single link to support any claim contained in it, goes on:
“Florida is now poised to benefit from billions of dollars in additional federal assistance to grapple with the devastating damage left by Hurricane Ian, which could bring a staggering $40 billion of insured losses.”
Benefit? Florida is going to be cleaning up for years from this disaster – “benefit” is a poor choice of phrasing but the author, Matt Dixon, claims that Biden is using his own “wallet” to help with cleanup and recovery, so it seems to fit Dixon’s benevolent benefactor theme.
But it wasn’t all partisan and silly. Dixon did use one quote from his likely “go-to source,” a Democrat in the Florida House of Representatives:
“Ironically, while DeSantis has attacked Biden, he’s benefited from his administration,” said Florida Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a frequent critic of the governor. “The constant demonization of President Joe Biden by Governor Ron DeSantis has always been politically motivated.”
Again, there is not a single link to any claim in the article by Dixon. Dixon notes that Florida flew illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, and claimed:
The governor has already used $615,000 to transport about 50 mostly Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard.
That may or may not be true but according to WKBN ( a Florida news station), the facts are not in. It reported:
$615,000 from the Florida Department of Transportation for the “relocation program of unauthorized aliens.” It is not known if that money was used for the Martha’s Vineyard flights.
I know — governments can be wasteful but flights from Texas to Massachusetts, using two private jets should not cost $300,000 per flight. Sorry, this isn’t the Pentagon and peanuts don’t cost that much. By the way — here is the link to the WKBN report (try it, Dixon).
Mr. Dixon also throws a dig in about DeSantis when he was in Congress. He opposed disaster legislation that was ostensibly for Hurricane Sandy relief because it was really a slush fund for more spending on things that didn’t need disaster relief. Matt left that out. No link is needed.
Politico claims it’s all about non-partisan reporting. From their website:
POLITICO strives to be the dominant source for news on politics and policy in power centers across every continent where access to reliable information, nonpartisan journalism and real-time tools create, inform and engage a global citizenry. (emphasis added)
No, Politico. No, you’re not.