Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary temporarily wound up in Twitter jail on Friday after the Associated Press accused her of leading a badgering effort against one of its reporters.
Joseph Wulfsohn of Fox news tweeted Friday night that Twitter shut down Christina Pushaw’s account for 12 hours “for violating the Twitter rules on abusive behavior.”
“When asked what specific tweets violated the rules,” Wulfsohn added, “Twitter declined to comment.”
Pushaw, however, did not take that option.
“You will ban the press secretary of a democratically elected official while allowing the Taliban to live-tweet their conquest of Afghanistan?” she told The Free Press.
“This proves Gov. DeSantis right – again. Those who challenge false narratives are too often silenced by corporate media and Big Tech collusion. No wonder public trust in the media is at an all-time low.”
The dispute was triggered by an AP story published Wednesday implying that DeSantis was pushing a COVID-19 treatment by Regeneron, instead of vaccines, to benefit a donor who has given nearly $11 million to a PAC friendly to the Republican governor.
The donor Ken Griffin is a hedge fund manager whose firm owns nearly $16 million in Regeneron stock.
Regeneron was actually purchased by the U.S. government, not the state, on Jan. 12, with more than 1.5 million doses in stock.
Pushaw slammed the story, and according to a letter the AP sent DeSantis on Friday, told her followers on Twitter to “drag them.” AP complained to DeSantis that Pushaw’s tweet touched off a “torrent” of “abusive” comments at its reporter. The news service also urged DeSantis to “eliminate this attack strategy” from his media office, adding that it “certainly has no place in a democracy.”
Earlier Friday, Pushaw told The Free Press the AP story was “reprehensible” because it would discourage people from seeking Regeneron’s monoclonal-antibody treatment.
“They did this just to score political points against the governor. But the reporter is not the victim here. The victims are the people of Florida. They’re risking their lives because they may not seek this life-saving treatment” based on the AP report,” she added.
The AP story was so misleading that a progressive group, Democratic Underground, picked up on it and fired off an Instagram post that
The post maintained that DeSantis “has been discouraging masking and downplaying Covid vaccines,” and instead is pushing Regeneron.
“You’ll be amazed to learn that the second-largest investor in Regeneron is Citadel Investment Group,” whose CEO, Ken Griffin, is “DeSantis’ number, one political donor,” the post argued, according to PolitiFact.
Democratic Underground was so wrong that even PolitiFact’s lefty “fact-checkers” dubbed the Instagram post “mostly false.”
“Griffin,” PolitiFact continued, “is a major campaign donor to DeSantis, but his firm is only a small investor in Regeneron, and one of more than a thousand institutions with a stake in the company.”
Conservatives rallied behind Pushaw at the AP’s tantrum
Conservative writer Jack Posobiec tweeted, “Journalists are being shot at in Afghanistan and the AP is melting down over tweets.”
- “Reprehensible” Florida Governor’s Press Secretary Pushes Back On AP Report And Complaint
- Canceled: LinkedIn Joins The Fun, Shuts Down One Of Florida Gov. DeSantis’ Favorite Scientists
- Taliban Executes Journalist’s Family Member After Door-To-Door Search
Support journalism by clicking here to our GoFundMe or sign up for our free newsletter by clicking here
Android Users, Click Here To Download The Free Press App And Never Miss A Story. It’s Free And Coming To Apple Users Soon