If you’ve been reading RedState the last few days, you’ve no doubt been following the saga of a 60 Minutes hit piece produced on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (see here, here, here, and here for more details). The “report” was full of false insinuations and included a deceptively edited portion that obscured the truth of the matter. It was so dishonest that even multiple Democrat officials in Florida called out CBS News for purposely lying about the vaccine situation in the state.

Tonight, DeSantis went on Tucker Carlson’s show, and let’s just say that shots were fired. He lambasted 60 Minutes for their terrible journalistic standards and for deliberately lying about the situation with Publix and vaccination sites. DeSantis also provides more detail about where the state was targeting vaccinations early on because CBS completely omitted that context.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rips 60 Minutes' hit against him and Publix on Tucker Carlson Tonight:

"They didn’t tell you we were doing African American church vaccination drives before Publix gave a single shot… They don’t believe in facts. It was a political narrative." pic.twitter.com/ZNPD8yRO6F

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 6, 2021

DeSantis notes that 3.5 million seniors have been vaccinated, a larger total number than any other state in the union. Instead of mentioning that and praising the success of Florida’s program, 60 Minutes decided to invent a conspiracy theory that Publix paid off DeSantis for the rights to distribute the vaccine. There is no evidence of that whatsoever nor does it make any sense anyway. Worse, it’s a disgusting smear of a good company that has stuck its neck out there to help local communities and saved lives.

Also noted is that Florida specifically targeted underserved, rural communities if they weren’t within a reasonable distance of a larger vaccination site. 60 Minutes also didn’t tell its viewers that there were initial vaccination drives at African American churches or that hospitals were giving shots before Publix ever got involved.

Perhaps most damning, though, was DeSantis’ mention of the Democrats who called 60 Minutes on their lies. The Mayor of Palm Beach actually said the deception was intentional, which it clearly was. He tried to give a statement sharing the truth with CBS but they refused to even take it from him. That shows what the motivation here was, and it wasn’t to do honest journalism.

Lastly, Tucker noted Florida’s far lower death rate compared to New York and other blue states. In fact, Michigan is seeing the largest COVID infection spike in the country right now, but 60 Minutes had absolutely no interest in investigating the Democrat governor there or why their vaccine roll-out has been such a disaster. Rather, in a totally irrational fashion, they continue to focus on Florida, which has objectively done an excellent job overall, including with their vaccination program. None of it makes sense until you understand this is all about politics.

The facts simply don’t matter to 60 Minutes. What matters is trying to destroy Ron DeSantis because they know he’s a huge threat in 2024. DeSantis gets that, and he’s up for the fight. This episode has only strengthened his case as the best governor in the country.

When you swing at the king, you best not miss.