DeSantis Tries To Outdo Trump's Nastiness To Media

If Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida somehow becomes the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2024, two factors will help explain why, his mastery of his party’s hostile relationship with the mainstream media, and his relentless courtship of Fox News, Blake Hounshell and Leah Askarinam reported for the New York Times.

Photo Insert: “They (GOP) would try to impress the corporate media. Don’t work with them. You’ve got to beat them. You’ve got to fight back against them,” says Flordia Governor Ron DeSantis.

An exchange in August 2021 is typical of how DeSantis interacts with the press — with a combination of bluster and grievance modeled on Donald Trump, his political mentor, and potential rival.

The Delta variant of the coronavirus had just arrived, and a question about the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state set him off. There was plenty of room in Florida’s hospitals, he explained.

Then, with a jerky, almost robotic forward-chopping motion, he gestured at the reporters gathered in front of him. “I think it’s important to point out because, obviously media does hysteria,” he said. “You try to fearmonger. You try to do this stuff.”

“It’s the undercurrent of his operation,” said Peter Schorsch, the publisher of FloridaPolitics.com. “Trolling the media.” Former aides say that DeSantis views the press as just another extension of the political process — a tool to weaponize or use for his own benefit.

During a recent interview on “Ruthless,” a conservative podcast, he expounded on his philosophy. “Too long, for many of these Republicans, they would always defer to the corporate media,” DeSantis said. “They would try to impress the corporate media. Don’t work with them. You’ve got to beat them. You’ve got to fight back against them.”

He’s proven remarkably deft at fighting back. The day after a “60 Minutes” report suggesting that Florida’s vaccine program had been influenced by political donors, DeSantis gave a 26-minute news conference — complete with a PowerPoint presentation — to decry CBS’s reporting as “malicious smears” and “a big lie.”

Media critics agreed the segment was flawed. “I think you need that approach,” said Dave Vasquez, his former press secretary. “Some outlets are out to land a big punch on him, so he goes into it thinking, ‘I’m going to fight really hard.’”

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