{"id":1551008,"date":"2022-07-12T16:05:08","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T20:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1551008"},"modified":"2022-07-12T16:05:31","modified_gmt":"2022-07-12T20:05:31","slug":"politico-just-got-caught-trying-to-concoct-an-imaginary-desantis-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/politico-just-got-caught-trying-to-concoct-an-imaginary-desantis-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"Politico Just Got Caught Trying To Concoct An Imaginary DeSantis Scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpolitico-just-got-caught-trying-to-concoct-an-imaginary-desantis-scandal%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1551008&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/51460337106_0e9cee57c5_k.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Politico was forced to update a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/07\/11\/florida-has-paid-700k-to-teach-racial-inclusivity-00044828\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">story<\/a> after baselessly implying that the Florida Department of Education hired a consulting firm for services promoting critical race theory. <\/p>\n<p>Because MGT Consulting is \u201cwell-versed in critical race theory\u201d and has created \u201cRacial Equity Plans\u201d in other states, the article suggested it was hypocritical for the Florida Department of Education to maintain contracts with the firm since Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has spoken out against the divisive and racist roots of critical race theory. <\/p>\n<p>Bryan Griffin, a deputy press secretary for DeSantis, called the hit piece a \u201cbogus story\u201d and confirmed to The Federalist that \u201cthere is absolutely zero CRT work funded by the state of Florida.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Before publishing the story, Politico reporter Matt Dixon questioned Griffin about a list of contracts between MGT Consulting and the Florida Department of Education, which Griffin noted were \u201cunannotated.\u201d \u201cOur office couldn\u2019t possibly speculate about each of these contracts, nor assume the intended purpose of each engagement,\u201d Griffin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/07\/11\/florida-has-paid-700k-to-teach-racial-inclusivity-00044828\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">responded<\/a> to Politico. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe especially aren\u2019t interested in speculating under the assumptions you presented based on work they have done in completely different states,\u201d he added. The Politico article cited MGT\u2019s work in creating a \u201cRacial Equity Plan\u201d for the city of Golden, Colorado, and its contract for a study in Charlottesville, Virginia.<\/p>\n<p>Politico also claimed the firm has \u201cdone extensive work for Florida government entities, including using \u2018race and gender\u2019 data that was \u2018used to shape policy designed to increase diversity in [state university] institutions.&#8217;\u201d That was apparently in reference to a data project MGT conducted for the Board of Regents of Florida\u2019s State University System, not the Department of Education. \u201cCollecting data based on demographics is much different from pushing an ideology like critical race theory,\u201d Griffin told The Federalist. \u201cIt would be false to say that\u2019s CRT because it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The only other example of an alleged MGT contract Dixon provided to Griffin that was even in Florida was one with the Florida Department of Management Services, according to emails reviewed by The Federalist. The contract doesn\u2019t detail racial or gender issues beyond a section about \u201ccreating opportunities for woman-, veteran-, and minority-owned small business enterprises to participate in procurements and contracts,\u201d and descriptions of MGT\u2019s work for other clients in an attachment.<\/p>\n<p>In an email to Griffin, Dixon revealed his purpose in pursuing the non-story, noting that \u201cthe [DeSantis] administration has in the past defended instances of people supporting philosophies it does not. \u2026 Wasn\u2019t sure if this was another example of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt all trying to email us [instead of the relevant agencies] was some sort of a gotcha attempt on his side,\u201d Griffin told The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p>Politico published the story without comment from the Florida Department of Education, after apparently emailing the department\u2019s former head of communications, according to current Communications Director Alex Lanfranconi. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s completely irresponsible to imply we\u2019re paying MGT for any work regarding Critical Race Theory. There is no evidence of this accusation whatsoever and it is entirely false,\u201d Lanfranconi <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BryanDGriffin\/status\/1546573371135205378\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a> Politico after the story was published. \u201cWe\u2019ve never contracted with MGT for anything related to Critical Race Theory since Governor Ron DeSantis took office.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Department does not police the work our contractors complete for other clients,\u201d he added. \u201cProviding sporadic examples of MGT work in other states for unrelated organizations and attempting to connect it with the Florida Department of Education is dishonest and disappointing.\u201d Politico added part of Lanfranconi\u2019s response to its article post-publication but did not attach an update or correction note.<\/p>\n<p>The Federalist reached out to Dixon for comment, including whether his article meant \u201cto imply that the Florida Department of Education is paying MGT to do work directly related to critical race theory, or simply that the department happens to contract with a firm that does CRT-inspired work for its other clients?\u201d but Dixon did not respond by publication time.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Elle Reynolds is an assistant editor at The Federalist, and received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. You can follow her work on Twitter at @_etreynolds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Politico was forced to update a story after baselessly implying that the Florida Department of Education hired a consulting firm for services promoting critical race theory. Because MGT Consulting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":500,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1551008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/500"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1551008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1551008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1551008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1551008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}