Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office is hitting back after a newspaper article wrongly said that he had been disinvited from an event over his stances on immigration.
“Investment conference in Miami cancels DeSantis’ speech over ‘anti-immigrant’ views,” said a Thursday evening headline in The Miami Herald.
The story, which was authored by reporter Mary Ellen Kas, was echoed Friday by The Tampa Bay Times.
But it wasn’t true, according to an email conversation between the governor’s Press Secretary Christina Pushaw and the Vice President of Operations of the group that is hosting the event, Eb5 Investors Magazine. Pushaw made the email conversation public after the false story was printed.
“Eb5investors.com is excited to be hosting a conference in the great state of Florida,” Marie Ekberg Padilla told Pushaw. “The governor was never confirmed to participate, nor was he uninvited. We made a staff error and are regretful. It’s unfortunate that our event was used by media for political gain.”
At press time, The Miami Herald has not issued a correction.
“The Miami Herald is doing its part to help Governor DeSantis and the conservative movement by eroding Floridians’ trust in media,” Pushaw told The Florida Capital Star. “Activists like Mary Ellen Klas should join the DNC communications staff, because they aren’t fooling anyone by pretending to be objective journalists.”
Pushaw said the governor would not be attending the event.
“As you can understand, the governor has a busy schedule working for our state and cannot go to many events,” she told The Capital Star. “An event aimed at foreign investors and wealth management does not sound like something he would generally be interested in attending, since he prioritizes events where Floridians will be in attendance and where the issues that are most important to Floridians will be discussed.”
She also noted that DeSantis is not “anti-immigrant,” but is opposed to illegal immigration.
“It is frankly offensive that the legacy media believes we Floridians are so stupid that we cannot tell the difference between legal and illegal immigration,” she said. “Florida is home to millions of legal immigrants and naturalized US citizens, who are hardworking, patriotic, and valued members of our communities. In fact, legal immigrants are some of the most vehement opponents of illegal immigration and fully agree with Gov. DeSantis on this issue.”
The Herald did not return a comment request.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Florida Capital Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Ron DeSantis” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0. Background Photo “Miami Herald” by Totenkopf. CC BY-SA 3.0.
