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August 3, 2022

Gov. Ron DeSantis gives the perfect rebuff to ABC's The View

By Andrea Widburg

One of the things Republicans are finally figuring out, in large part thanks to Donald Trump, is that the media are their enemies.  This is not hyperbole.  Since Kennedy's presidency, the media have put their weight behind Democrats while consistently undermining Republicans.  Before Trump, though, they pretended this slanted coverage flowed from objective analytics.  With Trump, the gloves came off, which is a good thing.  Now smart Republicans are figuring out that they can fight back...and win.  Ron DeSantis's recent open correspondence with The View illustrates this perfectly.

ABC's The View (which really means Disney's The View) is a weekly daytime show.  Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sara Haines, and Sunny Hostin, with periodic help from Ana Navarro, sit around a table and talk about politics and social issues.  They are a hardcore mix of ignorance and leftism.  For reasons that will forever remain unclear to me, they have managed to hold an audience for 25 years, and their loudly stated opinions affect people's thinking about important issues.


Image: The View.  YouTube screen grab.

On Monday, Bryan Griffin, who is the deputy press secretary for Florida governor Ron DeSantis, let it be known that The View had invited Governor DeSantis to appear on the show:

Before Trump, a Republican politician would almost certainly have said "yes" to the request, operating on the theory that any exposure to the voters is good and acting in the hope that the media figures would, at the very least, be polite.  Since Trump, though, with the media having abandoned even the appearance of fairness or respect, only a very foolish Republican would say "yes."  DeSantis is no fool.  But what makes DeSantis and his staff just that much better than the average politician is that he didn't merely say "no" to The View's "we would be honored" offer.  Instead, he explained precisely why he had to pass on that honor:

Thanks for the invite. I understand that you are sending this request on behalf of your team.

But are the hosts of the View really interested in hearing from Governor DeSantis about all of the important work he is doing on behalf of Floridians to protect their health and livelihoods, to stand up for parents and children, and to defend freedom? Which of the below statements from the hosts of the View do you recommend our team consider when deciding if the interview will be a genuine pursuit of the truth? Or worth the time?

Joy Behar, August 2021: "You're just short of calling [Governor DeSantis] a negligent, homicidal sociopath, because that's what he is." She added: "What is he doing? He's risking the lives of children, children's parents, their grandparents, anyone they may come into contact with, so he can appeal to his white supremacist base, so he can continue in his career and get reelected."

Sunny Hostin, June 2022: "Death-Santis... I think he's a fascist and a bigot."

Ana Navarro, April 2022 (on Governor DeSantis's policies): "It's anti-Black, it's anti-gay, it's anti-LGBTQ community. And for some reason, the Republican base responds to it." And "It's anti-American. It's what happens in Venezuela. It's what happens in Nicaragua."

Sunny Hostin, February 2022 (on Governor DeSantis's policies): "It started with CRT. Let's remember that — and those are anti-history laws, anti-Black history laws, really," she said. "If you start coming after Black people, what comes next, right? Of course the LGBTQ community, and then women, and then other marginalized groups."

We will pass on this offer.

Also please note — we don't coordinate appearances or events of a political nature from the official office. Our role is to serve the people of Florida.

Thank you,

Bryan Griffin

Deputy Press Secretary Executive Office of the Governor

And that, my friends, is how you do it.  The media do not deserve respect.  They deserve to be exposed at every turn.

It's only fair to note that political partisans on Twitter stated that DeSantis was refusing to appear solely because he couldn't cope with the intellectual wattage of the women on The View:

Normal Americans, however, understand that people who refer to you as "a negligent, homicidal sociopath" and "Death-Santis [and] a fascist and a bigot" are not doing to treat you with respect.  More significantly, they are not interested in a substantive conversation about politics and policies.  They simply want to insult DeSantis to his face.

Any time spent slinging insults with people like this is time wasted.  Despite the partisans' complaints, this one is a pure win for Governor DeSantis. 

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