The report that Ron DeSantis will announce his 2024 presidential campaign on Twitter has sent left wing media outlets into a tailspin of silliness. As Twitchy readers know, the Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel penned a diatribe depicting Twitter as a ‘far-right social network’ after the news broke of the Sunshine State’s governor. Vanity Fair’s Bess Levin followed suit with a 5-paragraph textual tirade, comparing Elon Musk to David Duke.
Levin’s piece reads like a transcript of a frothing TikTok rant recorded in selfie mode from the front seat of her car.
The media has lost its mind. pic.twitter.com/j9awsApaY2
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) May 24, 2023
Gen Xers know David Duke as the racist piece of garbage who ran the KKK back in the 90’s. Younger folks know David Duke as the racist piece of garbage the legacy media pulls out of cold storage every election cycle to pretend he has some tie to Republican candidates.
Likening Elon Musk to David Duke is slanderous horse manure.
Looks like Babylon Bee has some competition for satire
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2023
Musk laughed off the nonsense.
Here’s the actual piece from Vanity Fair’s Twitter account:
DeSantis is set to announce his 2024 White House bid in conversation with a guy who, among other things, has made Twitter a safe haven for hate speech. https://t.co/6i8dgwdn5s
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) May 23, 2023
They’re not angry that Elon Musk ‘has turned Twitter into a safe haven for hate speech’.
They’re mad they can’t accuse conservatives of being hate-filled bigots without being easily fact-checked by third parties.
It’s the loss of power they truly resent, and Twitter demonstrated exactly why free speech is a threat to this type of manic mudslinging.
Vanity fair now like … pic.twitter.com/FJPeMojmNk
— Hootyman (@TheHootyman) May 24, 2023
Recommended
Ha! Yes, that’s exactly how we heard it in our heads too.
(This editor does believe the little fella in the bottom right made some excellent points though.)
This is in the "news" section of Vanity Fair—a paper I had once dreamt of writing for. And I'm appalled.
Note phrases like: "David Duke Wasn't Available" & "Other Neo-Nazi sympathizers weren't available." These are words being thrown around wildly and irresponsibly—like little… pic.twitter.com/FhIj9Dt6v3
— 🚨 Katherine Brodsky (@mysteriouskat) May 24, 2023
Yes, they actually released this as ‘news’.
Brodsky goes on to say:
‘ … But to compare Elon Musk to an actual white supremacist and a former Grand Wizard of the KKK/neo-Nazi sympathizer—all for interviewing a Republican presidential candidate … is not just bad journalism. It’s outright slander. And it should be denounced by anyone who believes in actual journalism.’
And that’s why they hate Elon Musk. In their world, they should be allowed to liken people to KKK leaders like Robert Byrd and never be called out on it. (We couldn’t resist.)
They’re losing their position as gatekeepers … and they can’t handle it. https://t.co/abDoPpgIIm
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) May 24, 2023
Bess Levin even admitted as much in her short spittle spiel. Quoting NBC News, she relayed:
‘ … One of the sources familiar with the plans told NBC News that DeSantis’s aides have been watching Twitter become an increasingly friendly space for conservative firebrands under Musk’s leadership, allowing them to speak directly to their conservative audience and bypass traditional media—something that was once Trump’s superpower.’
‘Bypass traditional media’. Oh, the horror!
Is this real? This is absurd and offensive. People can say what they want about @elonmusk but to compare him to David Duke is not only ridiculous but offensive to those of us who knows what real racism from people who think like David Duke feels like.
— Darvio Morrow (@DTheKingpin) May 24, 2023
Spot on. David Duke headed a white supremacist political terror organization that left a legacy of intimidation, destruction, and murder.
Deceitfully drawing phony modern-day parallels to that legacy to score cheap political points is disrespectful to those who were victimized.
This is mental illness pic.twitter.com/TBh5RaPW1e
— Ashley St. Clair (@stclairashley) May 24, 2023
DeSantis Derangement Syndrome is simply a new variant of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Levin even ends her screed with the warning:
‘Anyway, just as a reminder, a DeSantis presidency is as terrible a prospect as a Trump one.’
Is this real? Because I'll be honest I can't tell
— Sara (@brightislandusa) May 24, 2023
The Vanity Fair hit piece, disguised as journalism, was so ridiculous that many thought it might be a fake.
Nope.
Are they saying desantis is duke or musk is duke
— r2401 (@liliiilllliiili) May 24, 2023
Yes.
The point is slander. The ‘journalist’ name-dropped a racist dirtbag, who has absolutely nothing to do with Musk or DeSantis, in order to smear them both with … guilt-by-non-association?
Bess is seething that people are seeing Twitter as a way to disseminate news … and probably also because she writes for Vanity Fair.
The irony is that Joe Biden has a long and demonstratable track record of being every bit as racist as the Left imagines [fill in the blank Republican] as being.
But he's their racist, so… https://t.co/J0DTzDf8aE
— Beorn (@Beorn2000) May 24, 2023
They’re not allowed to talk about that in legacy media. LOL.
You know we're approaching campaign season when the corporate press pulls the David Duke card https://t.co/SPpYhUK4oK
— Queen of AnCapistan (@syd_viciously) May 24, 2023
LOLOLOL! That’s what we said!
There was a truly laugh-out-loud moment in the Vanity Fair piece where Bess Levin took a breath to point out that Nazi-sympathizer Elon MusKKK also recently praised Tim Scott’s campaign announcement.
Tim Scott is a black man, by all conventional measures (i.e., skin color).
We’re not sure how the Left categorizes Scott today, but it’s certainly an odd admission to point out that Elon Musk is excited about Tim Scott entering the race while simultaneously trying to paint Musk as a white supremacist.
Except, you know, I'm not going to read it. pic.twitter.com/x98nvA802T
— Milton Friedman Stan Account (@AndIllWhisperNo) May 24, 2023
Oh, it’s going to get much worse. Trust us.
We’re going to have this knock-down-drag-out bloodbath of a GOP primary, but one thing is certain: When it’s all over, Trump and DeSantis fans need to put a Band-Aid on it and try to stop these nutty people on the Left from continuing to hold power.
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