AP Photo/John Raoux, File
A PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign took a nasty and false swipe at a Florida journalist Friday, accusing Florida Politics publisher Peter Schorsch of being “bought and paid for by groomers” and former President Donald Trump because he went on a Disney cruise.
After the Never Back Down PAC tweeted a video of the governor touting his battle with Disney (an idiotic, petty, and unconstitutional mess I’ve written about at length), Schorsch posted his own tweet with a photo of the door decor on the entryway to their rooms on a Disney Cruise he and his wife and daughter were taking this weekend.
As Schorsch wrote, this weekend marked the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Disney Cruises, and he and his wife and daughter had “booked this cruise to celebrate that anniversary AND to spite [DeSantis’] lunacy with his war on [Disney].”
The PAC responded shortly thereafter, “We get it, you’re bought and paid for by the groomers and Trump.”
It’s a pathetically common slur that Team DeSantis has deployed for years against any of his critics: that if you oppose any of his legislation or policies on education or social issues, then you are either a “groomer” or supportive of groomers, a direct accusation that you’re a pedophile and condoning the sexual abuse of children.
Christina Pushaw, who served as DeSantis’ official press secretary for several years before taking her spokestroll skills over to the campaign side, is perhaps the most notorious offender, tweeting in March 2022 that anyone who opposed the Parental Rights in Education bill (dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay bill” by its critics) was “probably a groomer or at least you don’t denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children.”
There were of course other objections people had to the bill that were not because they were pedophiles; numerous commentators objected to the bill on constitutional grounds, citing its vague and overly broad language. Several contributors at the libertarian website Reason criticized the bill along these lines, describing it as an assault on free speech and acting as “soft censorship via threats of lawsuits.”
Facts and constitutional principles are of little interest when there’s a culture war to fight and a flailing campaign that can’t seem to get off the ground, so it’s little surprise that the DeSantis PAC lashed out with their habitual “groomer” smear.
It’s ridiculous I even feel it’s necessary to write this, but I’ve known Schorsch for over a decade now (dating back to the early days of the political blogosphere, when he was writing as “Saint Petersblog” and I was “Sunshine State Sarah”), and while we haven’t always seen eye to eye on every issue or candidate, I know he is deeply devoted to his wife and daughter — and calling him a “groomer” or implying he’s a puppet of some Evil Groomer Cabal or whatever nonsense Team DeSantis is peddling would be ridiculous if it weren’t so vile.
Pedophiles — rightfully! — get the highest degree of scorn and disgust from civilized society, along with severe criminal penalties if they ever take action to harm a child or possess or distribute material showing harm coming to children. To compare a political opponent to a pedophile is scurrilous to the point of possibly constituting defamation per se. If I were in Schorsch’s shoes, I’d consider chatting with a lawyer about sending a cease-and-desist letter to the trolls who run our governor’s PAC to remind them that their free speech rights don’t give them a free pass to smear him as an agent for pedophiles.
Schorsch noted the PAC’s attack on him was something extreme even in this “Trumpian political environment,” to have a “9-figure funded presidential campaign super PAC trolling me for taking my family on a Disney cruise.”
Others commented on the outlandish PAC tweet, including The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson (who has also known Schorsch for years and knows that attack was flaming garbage).
And as several Twitter users pointed out, DeSantis’ bumbling War against Mickey Mouse might get cheers at conservative conferences, but it’s a flop with voters and hasn’t helped his struggling poll numbers.
I reached out to Schorsch for comment and he replied, “To quote the immortal words of philosopher Ron Burgundy, that escalated quickly.” He does seem to be getting the last laugh, posting a tweet that it was “really awesome” how DeSantis was “paying for this cruise.”
“Seriously,” he wrote. “The increase in traffic (last week was our busiest in 6 months) to our website since he launched his presidential campaign has more than paid for this cruise. Thanks Ron.”
—