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As Hurricane Ian stormsTweeters across the Gulf coast attacked Politico for a Tuesday tweet that falsely claimed Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has never been faced with the difficult challenge of a hurricane striking his state.
DeSantis was elected in January 2019. Hurricane Sally hit the Florida panhandle in September 2020. Pensacola was particularly affected.
Politico tweeted a link at an article titled “DeSantis faces Florida’s true test,” along with the accompanying text “Gov. Ron DeSantis was a highly influential Republican during his first term. But he still hasn’t faced one of the toughest challenges a Florida leader can encounter: a hurricane.”
Okaloosa Island, Florida is seeing flooding and damage after Hurricane Sally made landfall Sept. 16, 2020.
(City Of Orange Beach/Facebook
Christina Pushaw is the rapid response director at the Ron DeSantisThe reelection campaign replied directly to the tweet: “Read that tweet again, and ask yourself where your life went wrong to end up doing such a thing as ‘journalism’.”
In a separate post she listed several criticisms of Politico’s story, calling out Matt Dixon directly.
“The premise of Matt Dixon’s story is distasteful and false. Northwest Florida was hit by Hurricane Sally in 2020 … Also, Governor DeSantis has not only held briefings at the SEOC. She wrote that he had a briefing yesterday in Pinellas, Sarasota, and provided a link to a previous story.
She suggested that media are cheering for Florida’s destruction by Hurricane Irma.
“Florida boasts some of the best emergency management leadership and personnel. Governor DeSantis, along with his team, are doing everything they can to make sure our state is ready. “Sorry to disappoint liberal media activists, who are continually cheering for Florida’s destruction,” she tweeted.
A damaged business is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Sally, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020, in Perdido Key, Fla. (AP Photo/Angie Wang)
Other Twitter users shared similar theories, and criticised Politico as an example media supporting DeSantis or the state of Florida.
“Here’s the media praying for Florida to get destroyed by hurricane, just so they can have something to make DeSantis look bad,” Commentator and Claremont Institute fellow David Reaboi wrote in a tweet.
TROPICAL STORM IAN EXPLODE INTO CATEGORY4 HURRICANE BEFORE FLORIDA, FORECASTERS SAY
Rep. Alex Andrade (R-Fla.) wrote his own fact-check to defend his home state’s leadership.
“Fact Check: FALSE. Pensacola was hit by Hurricane Sally in September 2020. It was the worst hurricane to hit Pensacola for 16 years. Here’s @GovRonDeSantis at a briefing, committing to keep tolls lifted after our main bridge was destroyed. C’mon @politico,” he tweeted, with an image from the 2020 briefing.
As Hurricane Ian made its way toward Cuba, it was getting stronger. It was expected to strike Florida’s west coast, including Tampa, as a major hurricane by Wednesday.
(DroneBase via AP).
Virginia Kruta, a Conservative commentator, seemed to suggest that Politico’s piece was part in a long-running trend of Democrats attacking DeSantis for whatever reason.
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“Dems/media attack @GovRonDeSantis about COVID. He wins. Dems/media attack DeSantis for opposing grooming. He wins. Dems/media attack DeSantis’ for doing exactly what they do to illegal immigrants. He wins. Dems/media: We’re running out of… ooh! a hurricane,” she wrote.
Politico changed the article at one point in the afternoon to add the qualification that DeSantis had not faced a “major” hurricane. A note was added at the end saying, “CLARIFICATION”: “This story has been updated with the addition that Hurricane Sally impacted the western Florida Panhandle in 2020.”
