A.G. Gancarski
The evolution of Ron DeSantis from Freedom Caucus Congressman to front line national conservative continues apace, with victory laps for bills he got passed becoming routine on national outlets.
Monday’s edition offered national promotion for the morning signing of legislation taking aim at the kinds of social media censorship and deplatforming that conservatives say skewed the 2020 election against former President Donald Trump.
“When you deplatform the President of The United States but you let Ayatollah Khomeini talk about killing Jews, that is wrong,” DeSantis said to applause during the signing at Florida International University.
That long multi-speaker press conference in Miami in the morning was the shot, so to speak, and the cable news daily double Monday night, the chaser, allowing DeSantis to refine his case in front of friendlier interviewers than the South Florida press, conservative movement titans who understood the existential stakes.
Two big earned media showcases allowed the Governor to press his case against “Big Tech” and other sources of ire: a radio hit with Mark Levin, who promoted DeSantis as “America’s Governor.”
From there, another trip under the klieg lights: a Fox News segment with Sean Hannity.
During a roughly 13-minute radio hit, DeSantis said Silicon Valley is “wielding monopoly power” and “doing the government’s bidding with Biden in there,” DeSantis said, before going on to predict litigation from tech companies.
“You can set your clock by it,” the Governor said, using one of his characteristic anachronistic phrases.
“This very well may end up one day in front of the U.S. Supreme Court,” DeSantis added.
DeSantis noted Cuban and Venezuelan exiles, on hand at the bill signing, knew personally the “dangers of massive concentrations of power,” of the sort regimes in their homelands used, and apparently Facebook and Twitter here.
“We saw how they interfered in the election in 2020. Gimme a break,” DeSantis said, describing Big Tech as an “extension of the ruling elite,” working to “elevate [corporate media] narratives and then try to squelch dissent.”
“They very much are part of our ruling class, and in some extents, an extension of our current administration in Washington, ” DeSantis said of tech companies. “Can you think of examples where they’re suppressing ideas and speech that is favorable to the Biden administration? I can’t think of any.”
And Biden needs the help, DeSantis contended. He maligned Biden, the “absentee President” as a “transitional figure” and “clearly not playing with a full deck of cards” in his latest in a series of condemnations of “Biden’s weakness” on issues ranging from the border to Israel policy.
An enthusiastic Levin closed out by telling a staffer to “put his RonDeSantis.com on our Parler site.”
From there, the Hannity interview, with a chyron saying DeSantis “emerges as leader in fight against lockdowns, big tech bias, and anti-police policies.”
Among the segment’s highlights: DeSantis agreeing with Hannity about Big Tech stifling the New York Post article on Hunter Biden last October, and that being a functional in-kind donation to the Biden campaign.
“I doubt you can find an example in the history of Presidential elections where you would find a more significant in-kind contribution,” DeSantis claimed. “Big Tech has amassed a massive amount of power. They are monopolies that are much more powerful than the monopolies of the early 20th century. They are using their power to enforce orthodoxy and suppress speech and candidates they disagree with.”
DeSantis reprised his comparison of the treatment of Trump and the Iranian Ayatollah from the Miami bill signing, effectively matching in phrase and in cadence the version delivered at FIU nearly twelve hours before, yet another highlight of an economical four minutes on Hannity.
Though he wasn’t in the A-Block, ceding the lead to Sen. Lindsey Graham, he nonetheless was showcased, with the host promising a special announcement at the end of the show regarding another interaction, presumably on camera.
“I will be seeing you in person this week,” Hannity said. “That’s the only hint.”
“Looking forward to it,” DeSantis replied through a fixed smile.
Hannity was as good as his word, delivering a “major announcement” at the end of the show: a live town hall later this week from Nashville, involving DeSantis and other Republican Governors.
Included in the mix: Kristi Noem of South Dakota, who has been talked up as a Presidential candidate herself. And New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu, who jabbed at DeSantis for signing a tax hike in the form of the online sales tax, will also be on the dais Wednesday evening.
19 comments
jim fox
May 24, 2021 at 10:14 pm
What you can do patriots?
Stop supporting Democrat contributors. The National Basketball Association, Main stream media, and Major League Baseball have become political action committee’s for President Harris and her puppet Joe Biden. In addition, the following companies (listed below the biggest offenders) that worked on Joe Biden’s behalf, campaigned for other Democrats, fund raised for BLM and other far left activist organizations.
Financial Boycott whenever possible the following…….. NBA / WNBA, MLB, TNT, ESPN, Amazon, Modelo Beer, Pacifico Beer, Corona Beer, US Bank, Coca-Cola products, State Farm Insurance, General Insurance, Varo Bank, Nerdwallet, Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins, Sonic, Carls’s Jr, Jack in the Box, Wendy’s, Nurtec, Walgreens, Best Buy, Wayfair, Kohls, Cigna, Kellogg’s products, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Home Depot, Vivint, Verizon, USA today, NY Times, Wash Post, TBS, TLC, PBS, OWN, Oxygen, Nike, Discovery Channel, Discovery Plus, The View, Bloomberg, Facebook, Twitter.
Please pass this on.
Thank you.
Boycott any products endorsed by NBA, MLB players, leftist fund raisers Snoop Dogg, Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Amy Schumer, Taylor Swift, Jimmy Kimmel, Chelsea Handler, Robert DiNiro, Mark Cuban, Shaquille O’Neal, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, LeBron James.
Frankie M.
May 25, 2021 at 6:31 am
So don’t buy anything from anyone ever again. Got it.
tjb
May 25, 2021 at 8:20 am
Jim,
You are not a patriot but a domestic terrorist. Where were you on Jan 6? Take off your brown shirt and not destroy America with your ludicrous rants.
Ocean Joe
May 26, 2021 at 7:07 am
Modelo Especial is a great beer. “It’s not where you’re from…it’s what you’re made of.” Don’t they sell it in the Villages?
JUAN JOSE
May 24, 2021 at 10:47 pm
F…LIES 2+2= 5 NEVER AGAIN REPUBLICANS
John
May 25, 2021 at 12:03 am
so Juan,
What third world hell hole is your communist family from?
Frankie M.
May 25, 2021 at 6:34 am
Ronnie’s so worried about stifling free speech on social media that he’s putting duct tape on classroom teachers. Spare me your faux (read: fox news) outrage.
zhombre
May 25, 2021 at 7:49 am
Actually it is the tech companies stifling free speech on the internet but you are too obtuse, partisan and filled with hatred to see plain facts. Get a life and a clue, Frankie M and put a tourniquet on your spew,
tjb
May 25, 2021 at 8:24 am
Looks like DeSantis wants to prevent private companies from exercising their rights to free speech. Another fascist action by our self-absorbed governor.
zhombre
May 25, 2021 at 8:53 am
T = total
J = jerk
(and)
B = buffoon
It is the tech companies quashing free speech by using their immense power over social media to stomp competitors like Parler and limit speech that goes against the current orthodoxy. You wouldn’t know a fascist from a fishhook, slick.
Frankie M.
May 25, 2021 at 9:00 am
I’ll tell you what Justin told Brittney in his hit 2003 album Justified:
Cry me a river
tjb
May 25, 2021 at 12:17 pm
Typical Trumper response. Name-calling is your only defense, the counterargument strategy of a first grader.
Frankie M.
May 25, 2021 at 8:59 am
So it’s ok for Trump to indoctrinate us with his lies & propaganda but it’s not ok for teachers? Got it. I also didn’t realize access to twitter was considered a God given right under the Bill of Rights. My bad. #bebest
PeterH
May 25, 2021 at 10:43 am
Republican attacks on Facebook and Twitter are simply GQP talking points. Donald Trump and his ilk are dangerous and should be silenced because they want to overthrow our government. January 6th is a prime example. I will never vote for another Republican ever again. They ran on an empty platform in 2020 and if DeSantis thinks that Americans will embrace lunacy again he’s sadly mistaken.
Republicans need to understand that in the past 30 years of presidential elections they have won the popular vote ONCE. Republicans have nothing remaining to hold onto except voter suppression.
Tom
May 25, 2021 at 12:01 pm
Facebook and Twitter are privately owned companies, and if they want to edit content on their platforms it is entirely within their right to do so. No law prevents them. No law prevents oil companies from paying for commercials on TV explaining what they do and why we should buy their products, because they too are privately owned companies. Trump and Ron DeTrumpette can go on Fox News anytime they want and say anything they want. Fox regularly reminds us that they are the most-watched channel in America, so how is that not a good platform for their blather? Who says they can’t be heard? Why do we hear Ron constantly telling us he and his ilk are being kept quiet? Where are we hearing it? Oh, yeah, that’s right. All over the damn place.
James R. Miles
May 25, 2021 at 12:19 pm
Republicans don’t read, much less understand the U.S. Constitution. This ‘law’ will easily be declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court which will cost Florida taxpayers a bundle, again! Private companies have a right to decide who can use their platform and what can be said. It is a basic tenant of Capitalism. It would appear that Republicans are anti-Capitalist! Imagine that!!
Road Dawg
May 25, 2021 at 1:43 pm
Concur completely. This new statute is entirely performative and entirely unconstitutional. See Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo (1974) in which the United States Supreme Court addressed the very same issues and disposed of a similarly defective Florida statute.
John
May 27, 2021 at 1:41 pm
The Constitution was written in language plane and simple. No hidden legalese. It is the government actors that have failed to read and follow it. The rest of us are at fault for not drawing and quartering them in a public square for all to see on national television. Sedition and Treason are punishable by death.
While the premise that big tech is private, the influence upon society and election outcome is not. So the corrupt courts will indeed weigh in eventually.
John
May 27, 2021 at 1:49 pm
The 1974 case was decided by a corrupt court for the Herald which was owned by Kight-Ridder, an establishment propaganda arm.
Comments are closed.