Ron DeSantis likes to present himself as the man of the “silent majority” — a stance which harkens back to Reagan — while also governing like Trump, micromanaging things right down to what books should be banned. Today, however, on Fox News Sunday, of all places, he got called out on his book banning and hatred for the LGBTQ community.
Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream challenged the governor, not so much as a news host, but as a mother who hangs out with other women.
Bream told the governor about what sounds like a “girls’ night out” evening she had recently and what the mother of an LGBTQ child told her: (Video Below)
“I was at a gathering of women the other night, very informal, off the record. But one of the women said, I think it’s terrible in Florida that they’re banning books. She has a child who is in the LGBTQ community and said, I don’t want my child to go somewhere like that. I think that they’re afraid.”
“And the message that they’ve gotten is that teachers will be punished for talking about non-traditional families and families like hers.”
This is, of course, correct.
Indeed we’ve seen a teacher getting in trouble for showing a Disney movie with a gay character. Nothing says “Don’t say Gay” better than punishing a teacher for a movie with a gay character.
DeSantis must have decided there was no way out of this without lying because he told a whopper.
“Well, first of all, there’s not a single book that’s been banned in the state of Florida. That is a media hoax. To take a book out of a fourth-grade classroom that’s pornographic because it’s not appropriate for kids of that age, it’s not banning the book.”
Please, show us this “pornographic” book found in a fourth-grade classroom, Ronald. It should roll right off the tip of your tongue.
He didn’t name the book, which would be so helpful because it’s likely a certainty that he could name the movie that got the teacher in trouble.
It is Strange World, and according to CNN:
“The Hernando County School Board has closed its investigation into a Florida teacher who showed the Disney film Strange World to her fifth-grade class, according to a copy of the district’s final report provided to CNN by Jenna Barbee, the educator.”
And Bream wasn’t done with DeSantis, hardly buying his “pornographic” example:
“But banned from certain classrooms and age groups,” she pressed DeSantis.
Again, DeSantis reverted to a lie about “X-Rated” material, like the Disney movie Strange World.
He wants to convince us that the novel 50 Shades of Grey or Penthouse was in a fourth-grade classroom.
We all know it was just a book, age-appropriate, which had a non-traditional family because that’s less than Strange World. DeSantis lies again, citing “X-rated” ‘material without citing the material.
“Well, but you have to make decisions about what’s appropriate for curriculum. We would have never said, even 10, 15 years ago, that it was appropriate to have X-rated material. Some of these books are X-rated.”
If there were X-rated material in Florida classrooms, then DeSantis would be waving the example in the air. Instead, he prefers to lie in order to satisfy a woman concerned about her friend’s child.
Bream moved on.
WATCH: Florida Governor @rondesantis joined the program to discuss parental rights in education. pic.twitter.com/nEFWRG2xpl
— Fox News Sunday (@FoxNewsSunday) October 8, 2023
I can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com and on Twitter @JasonMiciak.
Editor’s note: This is an opinion column that solely reflects the opinions of the author.
