Jeanette Núñez labels Cosmopolitan story on Rebekah Jones a ‘puff piece’

Jeanette Núñez.

In what may be a first for Florida, the Lieutenant Governor went on the offensive against a venerable women’s magazine.

At issue: its sympathetic treatment of a departed state employee.

Highlighting a tweet from Cosmopolitan promoting an article about “whistleblower” Rebekah Jones, who broke from Florida’s Department of Health over a dispute about presenting coronavirus data during the pandemic, Lt. Gov. Jeanette M. Núñez on Friday castigated Cosmopolitan and media more generally in a Twitter takedown.

“Yet another shameful example of the partisan, corporate media willfully ignoring the facts and writing puff pieces to prop up this individual to perpetuate a manufactured narrative. Make no mistake — this is a total lie and Cosmopolitan is printing defamatory information,” Núñez said.

Jones, in the Cosmo piece, spun a harrowing tale of police raids and state intimidation, one that Núñez said was abetted by “the partisan media,” which is “to blame even more than Jones.”

“They are so desperate to attack our Governor that they are ignoring the very serious criminal charges pending against Jones and knowingly engaging in defamation against the Governor and others,” Núñez argued.

Núñez condemned what she called “baseless lies about Deputy Secretary Dr. Shamarial Roberson” and she also took Jones to task for a purported “racial slur” aimed at Helen Aguirre Ferré, the former DeSantis spokesperson who has moved over to the Republican Party of Florida.

“As the state’s highest ranking elected Hispanic official, I am appalled that Jones described the Gov.’s former comms director as a ‘chihuahua’ – a derogatory term. If anyone is buying that ‘Aguirre Ferré’ could be confused for a French name, I’ve got a bridge to sell,” Nunez asserted. Jones used the phrase in an interview, and attempted to retract it, saying she thought Aguirre Ferré was a French name.

Jones, widely celebrated during her break from the DeSantis administration, clearly continues to occupy space in their minds, even if the Governor himself has retreated from attacks on her of late, leaving it to surrogates like Núñez to carry the fight.

DeSantis has discounted all manner of claims Jones has made since her separation from state employ.

“It was not a raid. It was serving valid process in accordance with the laws and the Constitution of the United States and the state of Florida. They did it with integrity. They did it with honor,” DeSantis said in December after Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) agents acted on a search warrant at Rebekah Jones’ home earlier that year.

“To say it’s a raid is disinformation,” DeSantis said. “You guys need to look at facts and stop trying to feed narratives. I understand why you do it, but it’s not supported by facts. You should be better than that.”