by: Athina Morris
Posted:
/ Updated:
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis bashed Fox News’ coverage of the presidential elections on Wednesday, saying the network rushed to call Arizona for Biden, but waited too long to call Florida for Trump, likely for ratings or some other motive.
The governor held a press conference in Tallahassee on Wednesday to highlight the improvements the state has made since the 2000 Bush vs. Gore recount debacle, and the election chaos in Broward and Palm Beach counties in 2018. Early Wednesday morning, the Associated Press called Florida for President Donald Trump.
“I think it’s a testament to the state’s performance that as you see chaos unfolding in some of these other battleground states—where the votes may not be counted for days, where one state isn’t counting anything today, they’re just going to go back tomorrow—that people are actually looking at Florida and asking the question: ‘Why can’t these states be more like Florida?’” DeSantis said.
DeSantis spent much of the press conference criticizing the media for their coverage of the elections in Florida and other battleground states like Arizona.
“I was really disappointed with how the networks handled the call of the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis said news outlets should have called Florida “as soon as the early vote and mail ballots came in from Miami-Dade.”
“There was no way Donald Trump was going to lose with just that number,” he said.
The governor called out Fox News in particular, saying the network had “jumped the gun on Arizona.”
“A lot of the other networks still haven’t gone for Arizona for that. So for Fox to be so resistant to calling Florida, and yet jumping the gun on Arizona. I just thought was inexplicable,” DeSantis said. “I don’t think that was done without some type of motive, whether it was ratings, whether it was something else.”
The AP called the race for Biden early Wednesday morning.
DeSantis said if Arizona does flip, it would be a “huge blunder.”
“If you want to be aggressive, be aggressive across the board,” he told reporters.
LATEST STORIES:
