‘Total Lie’: Ron DeSantis Blasts Reports His Hurricane Photo Op Interrupted Relief Efforts — But Video Shows Otherwise

Governor Ron DeSantis lashed out at media reports that his photo op visit to southwest Florida ravaged by Hurricane Ian caused frustration by residents forced to pause rescue and recovery efforts by his security.

During a press avail, Governor DeSantis was asked by an unidentified individual to address reports from “democrats and the media” who were saying that rescue efforts were interrupted by his photo op, which DeSantis immediately dismissed as a “categorical lie.”

“Yeah, it’s just, it’s just categorical lie, and the sheriff and the county said it’s a lie,” DeSantis offered towards the end of a Tuesday briefing. “I don’t know why we’re worried about the silly issues when we’ve got people to help. Okay. I was the first one to show up in Desoto and help those people. They were appreciative that we were, there weren’t stopping anything. They had distributed a bunch of water and food and whatnot. There was nobody even in line at the time. So it’s a total lie, and it’s just dumb, but I don’t have time for that.”

There is video that shows otherwise, however.

It was captured by Democratic operative Sam Newton, who was clearly trying to score political points. Still, when a local assistant principal is captured on video complaining about being kept from recovery and clean-up efforts because of DeSantis photo op, well, that goes against the “categorical lie” allegation by the Florida Governor. To wit:

That video was picked up and aired on Tampa’s local ABC affiliate, WFTS, in a longer package about ongoing recovery efforts in the Southwest Florida region.

The clip was shared via Twitter by a Florida resident named Peter Schorsch, who was summarily reported to Twitter for “disinformation” by DeSantis communications official Christine Pushaw:

Is Governor DeSantis being treated unfairly by Democrats and some in the media for a remarkably uncharitable narrative amid a catastrophe? It’s fair to say yeah, he is.

Does Ron DeSantis — and his media allies — also regularly engage in remarkably unfair and uncharitable treatment of his political rivals? Absolutely.

This is the way we live now, people. Get used to it.