Black supporters of Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis are pushing back against the media.
Following the racially motivated Jacksonville shooting, media outlets and the White House suggested DeSantis’ policies gaslit the incident. Now, some Republican leaders are calling the narrative “unjust,” Fox News reports. Florida State Rep. Kiyan Michael, a 2020 Black Voices for Trump Advisory Board member, says that’s the furthest from the truth. “It has nothing to do with the policy,” Michael said.
Michael, a Jacksonville resident, has defended DeSantis’ controversial education policies and has said the Biden administration is attacking the new policies, claiming they can “help the African American community.” “They’re pushing this thing because they’re trying to make us divided when we are trying to be united and trying to unite around these families,” the Florida representative said.
Michael isn’t the only one who feels this way. North Carolina State Rep. Kenneth Fontenot, another Black Republican, says the media has a double standard regarding shooting coverage. “You can have 100 African American men, you can have dozens of children, women killed in a city like Chicago on Memorial Day weekend without hearing anything, and then somehow Brandon Johnson or Lori Lightfoot don’t get any negative press over a city they can’t control,” Fontenot said.
“The reality is the only time the liberal media is really concerned with African American murders is when it’s race-related… that’s unjust.”
Fontenot is one of 19 North Carolina legislators who endorsed DeSantis for president, while Michael is a fan of SB 1718—the Florida bill that requires businesses to check the immigration status of workers—cracking down on migrants being in the state illegally, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “Heaven has borders,” Michael said during a vote. “Hell has none.”
Michael defended her governor after he was “booed” during a recent prayer vigil for the Jacksonville Dollar General shooting. “I think that it was not organic,” Michael said. “He didn’t have to come. But he came himself because that’s the man he is.”
