‘Corporate Media Lies’: Ron DeSantis’ Office Shoots Down Joy Reid’s COVID Cop Claims

Governor Ron DeSantis’ office is fighting back against media allegations that the Florida Republican is making special efforts to recruit unvaccinated policemen from other states and “bring deadly COVID into” the Sunshine State.

The governor’s office, in an interview with The Daily Wire, refuted comments made by MSNBC host Joy Reid, who leveled the charge as she named Governor DeSantis “The Absolute Worst” on Monday.

On August 17, DeSantis proposed that the state pay a $5,000 signing bonus to police from other states and make it easier for them to receive certification in Florida.

“Tonight’s ‘Absolute Worst’ is now actually paying to bring deadly COVID into his state. ‘Come to me, COVID,’” said Reid. She then voiced a parody recruitment commercial that offered law enforcement officers from the other 49 states the chance to kill Florida’s senior citizen population:

Are you big on ordering people to comply, but you hate complying with health mandates yourself? Do you dream of arresting people’s ability to breathe while you arrest them? Well, pack up your potentially infectious self, your badge, and your gun, and come on down to Florida. Take this taxpayer bonus money and enjoy constant interactions with vulnerable senior citizens you can breathe on. Every breakthrough case and ICU admission is the virus of freedom spreading. And don’t forget your sunscreen.

Reid said that, although DeSantis specifically pitched his appeal to unvaccinated police, he then lied about it. “Of course, today, because DeSantis has nothing if not consistent, he denied recruiting unvaccinated police, despite literally saying this on Fox News last night,” Reid said.

She then played a video clip of DeSantis saying: “In Florida, our policy is very clear: We’re going to have a special session, and we’re going to say, ‘Nobody should lose their job based off these injections.’”

That quotation says nothing about recruiting police, vaccinated or otherwise.

Joy Reid misrepresented the facts of Ron DeSantis’ offer to bring seasoned law enforcement agents to serve and protect his state, which had nothing to do with vaccination status, the governor’s office says.

“The facts speak for themselves: Governor DeSantis announced this initiative back in August at the Fraternal Order of Police conference, as part of a package of proposals to recruit law enforcement officers from out of state. Vaccine mandates weren’t part of the conversation back then, and vaccination status wasn’t mentioned at all in the governor’s announcement,” DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw, told The Daily Wire.

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