Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has become known for outmaneuvering the mainstream media. According to one review, he spoke only to conservative outlets between the start of the pandemic and last year’s Hurricane Ian.
Now, DeSantis has gone a step further in the fight against the mainstream media.
The Florida Republican leader is demanding MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell apologize and issue a correction over her fake report on him… and he’s refusing any appearances on NBC News until then.
Andrea Mitchell was interviewing Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this week when Mitchell accused DeSantis of ignoring the historical fact of slavery.
In an interview, Mitchell asked, “What does Gov. Ron DeSantis not know about Black history and the Black experience, when he says that slavery and the aftermath of slavery should not be taught to Florida schoolchildren?”
In reality, Florida rejected a proposal to teach A.P. African American Studies based on far-Left subjects that had creeped into the course material.
The governor’s office told CNN that it took issue with the inclusion of politicized topics like radical feminism and financial reparations for slavery.
Harris responded, “I don’t know what he knows and what he doesn’t know, but I know this… The people who know our children best are our parents and our teachers, in terms of the time spent… It should not be some politician saying what should be taught in our classrooms.”
DeSantis responded in a press conference, and he wasn’t having it.
“On MSNBC, you had the reporter [commentator] saying that Gov. DeSantis does not want to learn about slavery and its aftermath. If you actually looked at what our standards are, not only is it not prohibited to teach that, it’s required to teach that,” DeSantis said.
“It’s required to teach all of those things. It’s required under Florida statute to teach about racial discrimination,” he continued. “There’s enough people in corporate media who will just take that and just run with that.”
He cited as an example a book about baseball pioneer Hank Aaron.
Take a look —
MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell claimed in an interview with Kamala Harris that Ron DeSantis didn’t want slavery taught in Florida schools
Except there was a small problem: it was a complete liepic.twitter.com/wxWAz1t99j
— OutKick (@Outkick) February 20, 2023
DeSantis goes off on MSNBC:
"If it's explicit and pornographic parents have a right to object and it should be taken off… When they're trying to say they have to take a Roberto Clemente book or whatever, they are lying to you… This is an agenda."pic.twitter.com/pQMAGjbIpp
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) February 23, 2023
Mitchell walked back her remarks during her show on Wednesday in a brief postscript.
“A postscript: In my interview last Friday with Vice President Harris, I was imprecise in summarizing Gov. DeSantis’ position about teaching slavery in schools,” Mitchell said.
“Gov. DeSantis is not opposed to teaching the fact of slavery in schools, but he has opposed the teaching of an African American studies curriculum as well as the use of some authors and source materials that historians and teachers say makes it all but impossible for students to understand the broader historic and political context behind slavery and its aftermath in the years since,” she said.
Naturally, the governor’s office remained unimpressed with Mitchell’s “non-apology.”
“I saw her ‘postscript’ and it’s a typical non-apology response that doubles down on her lie,” the governor’s press secretary Bryan Griffin told Fox News Digital.
The governor’s press secretary issued a statement later. He announced the governor’s refusal to appear on any NBC affiliate until seeing a correction from Mitchell.
Conservative commentators expressed sympathy with the governor’s decision.
“It was one of the biggest mistakes/errors I have ever seen on NBC News or by any NY/DC anchor of note. And that says a lot,” one freelance reporter tweeted.
DeSantis refused to speak to liberal media from early 2020 until late 2022.
Now he’s fighting back
Take a look —
To all of the bookers and producers reaching out to our office from @NBCNews and @MSNBC for @GovRonDeSantis to join your shows, this will be the standard response from our office until @mitchellreports apologizes and your track record improves. pic.twitter.com/8kQcLLEVzW
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) February 22, 2023
The Horn editorial team