Ron DeSantis's secy Christina Pushaw suspended from Twitter for harassing journo
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's spokeswoman allegedly harassed a reporter via Twitter, after which, the social media platform temporarily shuttered her account due to “abusive behavior.”
Christina Pushaw allegedly disagreed with a Tuesday, August 17 story from AP reporter Brendan Farrington, about a multimillion-dollar DeSantis donor who also invested in a company producing Regeneron, a drug used to treat Covid-19 patients. Pushaw shared Farrington’s report on her Twitter handle and asked her followers to “drag them” before the post got deleted the post. The spokeswoman also threatened to put Farrington “on blast” if the story wasn’t edited, and retweeted a message about the AP, adding the words “Light. Them. Up.”
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Farrington got a number of threats after Pushaw's tweets. When she learned Farrington had been threatened, the spokeswoman deleted the “drag them” tweet, telling her followers “nobody should be threatening anyone.” “I’ll be fine, I hope. Freedom. Just please don’t kill me,” Farrington later tweeted about the threats.
Earlier on Friday, August 20, the AP published an article calling on DeSantis to end Pushaw’s “harassing behavior.” The article quoted Pushaw as saying she didn't know that “drag them” was meant to be taken as a threat. Washington Examiner journalist Jerry Dunleavy shared a screenshot Pushaw apparently shared with him at around 6:45 p.m. showing Twitter informing her she’d violated its rules. While she could still browse Twitter, the message said, she would not be able to tweet, retweet, post fleets, follow other accounts or like posts for 12 hours. He pointed out the suspension came “after @AP wrote a letter complaining about her,” adding: “Meanwhile, the Taliban livetweeted its conquest of Kabul.”
.@ChristinaPushaw says she has had her Twitter account limited / suspended for 12 hours — she was sent a notice she violated terms of use but wasn’t told which. This comes after @AP wrote a letter complaining about her. Meanwhile, the Taliban livetweeted its conquest of Kabul. pic.twitter.com/cOi2U6eyf3
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) August 20, 2021
Pushaw’s Twitter handle remains open and her timeline has retweets expressing views similar to Dunleavy’s, including several comparing the response to her and her followers’ attacks on Farrington with events in Afghanistan.
Pushaw said the AP was trying to distract from its "hit piece," which was widely criticized. "No one from our office ever threatened him," Pushaw told Fox News. "His story drew harsh criticism because it was false - and discouraged people from seeking life-saving treatment. Instead of owning up to that and retracting their hit piece, AP doubled down and tried to make the story about the backlash the reporter received."