DeSantis Responds to AP Letter, Says They Got ‘Deserved Blowback’ for ‘Partisan Smear Piece’

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis responded to the Associated Press Monday after the news organization sent him a letter about “harassing behavior” from his spokesperson.

Last week the AP ran a report headlined “DeSantis top donor invests in COVID drug governor promotes.” DeSantis has been opening monoclonal antibody centers in Florida to treat people with covid symptoms. Citadel has millions in shares of Regeneron, and the AP report notes that the CEO of Citadal has donated over $10 million to a pro-DeSantis political committee.

The report says “it’s not unusual for hedge funds to have a wide range of investments,” that it’s “a tiny fraction of its overall $39 billion in investments,” and that President Joe Biden has encouraged the treatments as well.

DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw went after AP reporter Brendan Farrington and accused the AP of trying to “politicize lifesaving COVID treatment” with the headline. Pushaw went on a tear on Twitter against Farrington, who said he was receiving death threats before making his Twitter account private.

This past Friday the AP sent DeSantis’ office a letter asking the governor to stop his spokesperson’s “harassing behavior.” Associated Press executive VP and chief operating officer Daisy Veerasingham — the next AP president and CEO — wrote, “Using her Twitter account, Christina Pushaw threatened a journalist, retweeted other threats against that journalist and issued a call to action against The Associated Press. This is unacceptable behavior from a government employee.”

DeSantis responded in a letter Monday saying, “I assumed your letter was to notify me that you were issuing a retraction of the partisan smear piece you published last week. Instead, you had the temerity to complain about the deserved blowback that your botched and discredited attempt to concoct a political narrative has received.”

He accused the AP of pushing a “false narrative” that will result in people “declin[ing] effective treatment for COVID infections,” even going so far as to say it would “cost lives.”

The governor defended Pushaw as he said, “I stand by the work of my staff who went out of their way to provide the AP with the factual information necessary to dispel the AP’s preferred narrative.”