Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Trump ally with his eyes on the White House, is dialing up a dispute with "60 Minutes" — seizing on a juicy chance to ingratiate himself with the GOP base by bashing the media.
Why it matters: It's a political gift akin to all the Fox fodder that Sen. Tom Cotton gobbled up after the N.Y. Times revolt over his op-ed.
What's happening: "60 Minutes" on Sunday drew a connection between a Florida vaccine partnership with Publix grocery stores, and a $100,000 contribution to DeSantis' PAC.
- DeSantis and Publix say they're unrelated — as do Florida Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz and Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner, both of whom are Democrats.
- "60 Minutes" showed CBS' Sharyn Alfonsi confronting DeSantis at a news conference. He claims that his answer was edited deceptively.
On Fox News last night, Tucker Carlson said as he welcomed the governor: "I was just thinking the other day, all these people moving to Florida, they're probably going to try to take out DeSantis soon. Didn't take them long, did it?"
- 'They don't believe in facts," DeSantis said. "It was done with malicious intent and a reckless disregard for the truth."
A CBS News spokesman told Axios that "60 Minutes" asked DeSantis twice for an interview: "As we always do for clarity, '60 Minutes' used the portion of the Governor's over 2-minute response that directly addressed the question from the correspondent."