Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has earned a well-deserved reputation for pushing back on the rampant leftism within the ‘mainstream’ media, and he did so again with style, accuracy, and aplomb on Thursday during a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago along with dozens of other GOP governors. Specifically, the Republican governor refused to allow a reporter to criticize Trump’s remarks about Democratic leaders in California, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, who have badly mismanaged resources for years that created the conditions for what have become some of the most devastating fires in recent memory, consuming entire neighborhoods like the well-heeled Pallisades and multimillion-dollar homes in Malibu.
Here’s the exchange – the video is at the end:
REPORTER: Is it appropriate for a president-elect or a president to be criticizing —
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Is it appropriate for people in your industry to try to create division and to try to create narratives anytime these things happen? Now, you’re not as interested in doing that because Newsom is a D. If Newsom was a Republican, you guys would go try to, you would have him nailed to the wall for what they’re doing over there.
And I know we’ve dealt with it. We just assume in Florida, anytime something happens, it’s going to be politicized by the media. So you guys sitting in judgment of Donald Trump, I mean, excuse me, I think your track record of politicizing these things is very, very bad.
REPORTER: But Trump said Newsom should resign and that the wildfires are all his fault. So do you agree with those comments?
DESANTIS: I’ve had — I remember when we had the Surfside Tower collapse.
I had people from the Washington Post trying to blame me for it immediately without having any facts or anything. Oh, he didn’t declare a state of emergency. First of all, state of emergency doesn’t mean you can’t respond.
It’s all that.
REPORTER: Biden didn’t.
DESANTIS: Excuse me?
REPORTER: Biden didn’t. That’s what she said.
DESANTIS: Well, but what I’m telling you is you guys are trying to make an issue of it. When I have watched from this seat, in fact, when I got elected governor, I was meeting with some of the other Republican governors and what they would say is, “Hey, if you have a natural disaster, just know media’s coming at you.”
They’re going to do it. It’s not the same. That mayor of LA, if that were a Republican mayor, I can only imagine what that would do.
I mean, you know, the fires are at high risk and you try to go to Africa or wherever she was to go on some type of voyage. You should have been there preparing and doing that. And yet I don’t see a lot of heat being directed in that thing.
And so, you know, I just, I’d like to see some balance on how this is, this is done. You could criticize the president elect, but I think you also have to hold these other people accountable. And I have not seen that.
WATCH:
Gov. Ron DeSantis obliterates mainstream media reporter trying to criticize Trump for correctly pointing out the inept Democrat leadership in Calif responsible for the wildfires consuming LA.
Says if Newsom was an R he’d get the same treatment. pic.twitter.com/DlFoDXQGxK
— USA Features Media (@UsaFeatures) January 10, 2025
