Jon Stewart’s former sidekick is up to his old tricks.
CBS’s Stephen Colbert this week used a dishonestly edited video and a media hit job published by the Orlando Sentinel to accuse Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis of failing to condemn neo-Nazi demonstrations this weekend in Orlando, Florida.
DeSantis, in fact, did indeed condemn the protests. Colbert was deliberately dishonest.
Did you expect anything else from the official late-night comedian of the “resistance”? You can take the man out of the fake news show, but you can’t take the fake news show out of the man.
“Speaking of the worst people in public office,” Colbert said this week, “Over the weekend, horrifically, there were a couple of Nazi rallies in Orlando. I assume they were trying to annex the Sudetenland pavilion at Epcot.”
No one laughed.
“Now, this is terrible, and the easiest thing in the world to condemn, unless you’re Ron DeSantis, who ‘remained silent,’” Colbert added. He was quoting verbatim from an erroneous report published by the Orlando Sentinel.
“It’s been said the only thing necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to say nothing,” Colbert said. “It’s also bad when Ron DeSantis says nothing. Then DeSantis got cornered by some no-good reporters wanting to know things like, ‘Hey, gov: So Nazis? Where do you come down on that whole deal?’ But DeSantis identified the true enemy: Democrats.”
Colbert’s producers then played a brief video clip of DeSantis speaking at a press conference on February 1.
The governor is shown saying, “What I’m going to say is these people, these Democrats who are trying to use this as some type of political issue to try to smear me as if I had something to do with it — we’re not playing their game.”
Colbert then took back center stage.
“He seems to think being asked how he feels about Nazis is some kind of gotcha question instead of the biggest softball question of all time,” the CBS host said.
He then added, looking directly at the camera, “I think Nazis are bad. Where do I get the courage? Not from Ron DeSantis.”
But this isn’t what happened at all. This is just Colbert’s and the Orlando Sentinel’s fantasy version of events.
DeSantis did condemn Democrats for elevating a trivial handful of protesters in an obvious and brazen attempt to smear him as potentially a neo-Nazi sympathizer. He was right to do so. It was a cheap shot to suggest that DeSantis is somehow responsible or accountable for the words and deeds of a few deranged individuals who happened to be within the borders of his state that day.
Also — and this cannot be stressed enough — DeSantis did in fact condemn the protesters.
What Colbert didn’t show his clapping seals is the full context of the governor’s remarks on February 1. DeSantis specifically condemned the demonstrators as “jackasses.” The governor also vowed that state law enforcement officials would hold the demonstrators accountable (you can watch the governor’s relevant remarks here).
“Some jackasses, you know, doing this on the street,” said DeSantis. “First of all, state law enforcement is going to hold them accountable because they were doing stuff on the overpass. So, they’re absolutely going to do that. And they should do that.”
One can argue the condemnation could have been more robust. One can argue that DeSantis spent too much time pushing back against Democrats who tried to make him responsible for these little demonstrations. (I disagree, but I can at least understand the argument.) But one cannot say he “remained silent.” That is not true.
I understand Colbert’s motivations. He was, is, and always will be a partisan fake newsman.
But what’s the Orlando Sentinel’s excuse for publishing such a falsehood?
