It may seem cruel to keep calling out “journalists” like the Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona and Vox.com hack Aaron Rupar for their penchants for acting stupidly, but it must be done because not only are these guys are just begging to get dunked and mocked but also because some of the deceptive stuff they tweet ends up going viral before anyone’s had the chance to do a double-check on what they’ve “reported.”
Rupar in particular has been caught so often tweeting out dishonest video clips of Republicans and Fox News media figures where he purposely takes them out of context to make it sound like they said something stupid or troubling, that it almost seems redundant to keep writing about it. He even inspired a smear campaign against a Georgia sheriff’s officer back in March who ended up having his employment threatened.
So yes, Rupar deserves the epic roasting he got tonight after taking yet another swing and a miss at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
As you’ve probably already heard by now, there was a horrific beachfront condo building collapse earlier today in Surfside, Florida where one person has been confirmed dead and close to 100 remain unaccounted for. Rescue crews are still on-site searching for survivors. Please keep all who were impacted and continue to be impacted in your thoughts and prayers.
Among other things, DeSantis has toured the scene of the building collapse, done local media interviews, declared a state of emergency, and met with families in the aftermath of the tragedy.
But that apparently was not enough for Rupar, who posted this screengrab of DeSantis’ appearance tonight on Sean Hannity’s program:
Hours after a building collapsed in Surfside, Ron DeSantis is on Sean Hannity's Fox News show pic.twitter.com/mNCymwEX61
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 25, 2021
Apparently, Rupar wasn’t aware that he had just committed a rather embarrassing self-own. Unfortunately for him, however, many others were prepared to let him know:
Whoa, wonder what they talked about pic.twitter.com/4G7yYBlsNX
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) June 25, 2021
Hours after a building collapsed in Florida, Ron DeSantis is on Fox News talking about the building that collapsed in Florida, as is the chyron. Thank you Vox Detective https://t.co/G6hc6vXP03
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) June 25, 2021
— Siraj Hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) June 25, 2021
Well, since he's already met with the families, set up a task force, allocated emergency funds and declared a state of emergency, I presume he plans to continue working for the people of the state of Florida.
— Micky Finn (@Micky_Finn) June 25, 2021
DeSantis’ press secretary Christina Pushaw also weighed in:
Yeah … AFTER he did a press briefing in Surfside today and gave 2 interviews that were on every local TV channel in South Florida this evening. He talked about the emergency on Fox, because people in other parts of the country care about it too.
— Christina Pushaw (@ChristinaPushaw) June 25, 2021
Aaron Rupar is extraordinarily stupid & bad faith. He knows this. We all know this.
The collapse happened almost 24 hours ago. DeSantis has been there almost all day. He’s spoken to families. And he’s on Hannity giving an update while Rupar concern-trolls. https://t.co/Yp5KRFEf2I
— (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) June 25, 2021
And let’s face it. As my colleague Brad Slager pointed out, DeSantis appearing on Fox News gave him a much larger audience to inform people about the state’s response to the building collapse than appearing on CNN would have:
DeSantis is detailing the specifics to the nation — to 4-times the audience than if he were on CNN. https://t.co/U475yN9OaN
— Brad Slager – In Trouble More Than Pres. Biden (@MartiniShark) June 25, 2021
I’d also like to remind folks that Rupar is the same guy who took issue with how DeSantis was sitting during a Fox News Republican governor town hall back in April:
sitting very strongly pic.twitter.com/rLjil2jk7B
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 30, 2021
As I said at the time, if what his numerous critics in the media have been reduced to is taking “issue” with Gov. DeSantis’ sitting style (and now for appearing on a popular primetime opinion program to talk about how his state is responding to a tragedy), you know he must be doing something right.
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