Ron DeSantis Bashes AP Over Story On Touting Of COVID-19 Treatment Linked To Donor
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday went after The Associated Press for its story about his touting of a COVID-19 treatment that is linked to a major campaign donor.
DeSantis ripped the article in a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity as âclearly a partisan hit piece,â and an example of AP âtrying to create a false narrative.â
Rather than pushing for preventive vaccines and masks as cases of COVID-19 skyrocket in his state, DeSantis has been heavily promoting the use of the pharmaceutical Regeneron to treat COVID-19, which was used by Donald Trump when he contracted the illness. The governor has set up Regeneron treatment sites for Floridians.
Hannity referred to Regeneron at least twice as a âmoncolonialâ antibody treatment. Itâs actually a monoclonal antibody treatment, and has generally proved to be an effective treatment â" after someone gets COVID-19.
But AP reported last week that Ken Griffin, who has donated $10.75 million to a political committee that supports DeSantis, is CEO of Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund that has $15.9 million in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceutical Inc.
DeSantis released a letter responding Monday to AP, calling the article a âsmearâ and a âconspiracy theory.â He also said he had thought the AP sent him a message notifying him of a retraction, but instead the message complained that his office was âbullyingâ the reporter who wrote the story.
AP also complained last Friday to Twitter, condemning what it called âabusive behaviorâ by DeSantisâ Press Secretary Christina Pushaw against its reporter Brendan Farrington.
Pushaw appeared to sic her 22,000 followers on AP and Farrington with a tweet directing them to âdrag themâ over a link to the Regeneron story. The message resulted in threats and other online abuse, AP notified Twitter, which subsequently suspended Pushaw from her account for 12 hours.
Pushaw also threatened to put Farrington âon blastâ if he didnât modify his story.
Screen Shot/Twitter/Christina PushawOn Aug. 20, incoming AP CEO Daisy Veerasingham called on DeSantis in a letter to stop Pushawâs âharassing behavior.â
Journalists are regular targets of âabuse, rape threats, people stalking their family members and hacking their online personas,â Veerasingham wrote. âWhile we can disagree about stories, it is unacceptable and dangerous for a public official to encourage the systemic bullying of journalists.â
The @AssociatedPress is writing @GovRonDeSantis today re: his press secretary, @ChristinaPushaw, and her "direct effort to activate an online mob to attack" a @FLPressCorps reporter. "We call on you to eliminate this attack strategy from your press office," the AP's exec VP asks. pic.twitter.com/ghyK7Lwy2K
â" Troy Kinsey (@TroyKinsey) August 20, 2021In his letter responding to Veerasingham on Monday, DeSantis defended Pushaw, saying AP âdeserved blowback.â
DeSantis told Hannity: âThe AP knew what they were doing. They wanted to do a political hit on me ... And then they had the temerity to act like they were the victim when they got called out on their hit piece.â
He didnât mention Ken Griffin, nor did he discuss any potential conflict of interest in constantly touting Regeneron.
The AP is standing by its story.
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