CNN 'Reporter' Takes Gotcha Games on DeSantis, Politicizing Hurricanes to Obscene Levels

As usual, when there is danger and/or catastrophe on the horizon, the mainstream media jumps into “never let a crisis go to waste” mode, pouncing and seizing on whatever nugget of (highly questionable and in many cases false) information or innuendo they have in order to portray Republican leaders in the worst possible light, as irresponsible elected officials whose actions or inactions were supposedly either directly or indirectly the cause of the tragedy that unfolded.

We’ve seen it countless times over the years in the immediate aftermath of mass shootings and natural disasters. We even saw it after the 9/11 terrorist attacks though in that particular case the media did give President George W. Bush a couple of days grace period before they laid into him about intelligence bulletins about hijacking planes he allegedly “ignored.”

Unfortunately, we’re seeing it happen to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ahead of Hurricane Ian, currently a Category 4 storm that is rapidly approaching Cat 5 status and which is expected to pound Florida’s southwest coast according to the latest forecast models.

As we previously reported, “news” outlets like Politico have gotten in on the act, and members of the White House press corps put on a pathetic display of open partisanship during a briefing with FEMA on Tuesday ahead of the storm’s arrival on the Florida coast.

Not surprisingly, CNN is doing their thing as well, first with demoted anchor Don Lemon getting shut down by the NOAA director after trying to inject climate change questions into his “reporting,” and then with “reporter” Steve Contorno, who wrote a piece pointing out how the leaders DeSantis is urging Floridians to listen to and the agencies he’s praising are people/agencies he previously criticized:

As DeSantis prepares Floridians for Ian, he is urging residents to heed advice from the same local leaders he suggested they ignore during COVID and praising a federal agency he previously alleged withheld aid to the state bc Biden was playing politics.https://t.co/CB8Dxjj8w2

— Steve Contorno (@scontorno) September 28, 2022

Left out of Contorno’s tweet, however, was that the actual criticism DeSantis had regarding FEMA at the time was not FEMA directly but Biden’s overseeing of it. That’s noted in the piece, but again it was conveniently was left out of the tweet – which is oftentimes all people read on a “news” story:

DeSantis has repeatedly suggested Biden’s disdain for the Republican leader has affected bureaucratic decisions, like whether to give the state access to certain coronavirus remedies. Earlier this year, he accused Biden of denying FEMA assistance to some Floridians on the west coast impacted by spring tornadoes out of spite.

Also, as DeSantis reelection campaign rapid response director Christina Pushaw pointed out, “it is a fact that Biden didn’t help the tornado victims in SWFL a few months ago.”

Fact check: True.

Further, comparing DeSantis’ criticism of local leaders during the COVID pandemic versus him working with them and praising them now for their advance hurricane prep work is like comparing apples to brussels sprouts. Again, from Pushaw:

Florida has a lot of experience with hurricanes and state/local emergency management authorities know what needs to be done, which is why @GovRonDeSantis urged Floridians to heed their warnings. Covid was entirely different.

Not only that, but if CNN was really interested in a story about leaders from opposing parties and how they were interacting (or not) with each other in times like these they’d have made a very big deal out of the fact that our petulant President Joe Biden couldn’t even be bothered to connect directly with DeSantis though he made it a point to call local mayors and suggested they call DeSantis if need be.

It was only after DeSantis called him out publicly did Biden pick up the phone for what likely was a very curt chat.

But CNN, of course, did not do any such story because DeSantis has absolutely broken them:

Said another way, "Here's another natural disaster which we will use to demonstrate our limitless political partisanship in a profession that continues to lose trust due to political partisanship."

— bkeyser (@b_keyser) September 28, 2022