Ron DeSantis blames Associated Press for Iowa ‘interference in the election’

Ron DeSantis‘ spokesperson made national news by telling her followers to “drag” an Associated Press reporter a couple of years back. In South Carolina, the Florida Governor made his own moves to drag the AP, accusing them of “interference in the election” in Iowa by declaring Donald Trump the winner shortly after caucus meetings began.

These comments expanded on remarks made in Iowa last night after most votes had been counted, in which the Governor said the media “called the election before people even got a chance to vote,” but did not name the AP specifically.

“Why would you call the race before people have even voted? I just don’t understand how,” DeSantis said of the alleged “interference in the election.”

DeSantis added that “whether it changed votes or not is irrelevant,” but did also say that “some people decided to walk out and when you talk about a proportional delegate situation, you know, that could have shifted a delegate or two.”

Representatives from the Governor’s campaign, facing a roughly 30-point loss in Iowa and losses in all 99 counties despite claiming at various points DeSantis would win the state, latched on to the “election interference” narrative within minutes of the AP call.

Campaign Manager James Uthmeier said “you can’t taint the process like that, having a victory declared before people have even voted before arguments have been heard. That’s not right.”

“Absolutely outrageous that the media would participate in election interference by calling the race before tens of thousands of Iowans even had a chance to vote. The media is in the tank for Trump and this is the most egregious example yet,” spokesman Andrew Romeo posted to social media, before sending the message out to the media mailing list.

“I’m at a precinct that hasn’t even voted yet, and the media are trying to call the race for Trump,” fretted Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis’ taxpayer-funded spokesperson.

“Unbelievable (and) irresponsible the corporate media is attempting to determine this race for Iowans. I just left a precinct that hadn’t even started voting yet… they’re so desperate to push their preferred narrative they’re disregarding Iowans (and) trying to make the choice for them,” asserted yet another spokesperson, Taryn Fenske.

For its part, the AP claims that they analyzed the data and that showed a clear Trump win early “based on an analysis of early returns as well as results of AP VoteCast, a survey of voters who planned to caucus on Monday night. Both showed Trump with an insurmountable lead.”

Furthermore, “initial results from eight counties showed Trump with far more than half of the total votes counted as of 8:31 pm. ET, with the rest of the field trailing far behind.”