Why Did This DeSantis Flack Delete All His Anti-OAN Tweets?
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This reporting appears as one of several scoops featured in this week’s edition of Confider, the newsletter pulling back the curtain on the media. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here.
Confider reported last week that Robert Herring, the Trumpy boss of far-right channel One America News, showed some love for Ron DeSantis, cutting a fat $20,000 check to the Florida governor’s re-election PAC and declaring he wants to see the governor as a Trump veep.
But that admiration may not be entirely mutual from the governor’s camp.
DeSantis’ deputy spokesperson Jeremy Redfern—an outspoken Twitter presence—has a history of relentlessly trashing the MAGA cable outlet, especially after the Capitol insurrection.
“OAN. The most trusted leader in Fake News,” Redfern posted on Jan. 6, 2021, reacting to a Twitter user sharing an One America News graphic claiming Trump won in a landslide. “This is an OAN reporter. She is delusional,” he tweeted two weeks later in response to then-OAN host Christina Bobb’s claim that “Biden will never be president.” (Bobb eventually ditched OAN to work for Trump.)
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Elsewhere, in Oct. 2021, Redfern declared: “I’ve never watched OANN in my life.” How sad for Herring! (The OAN boss did not respond to a request for comment.)
The former Florida Department of Health spokesperson joined the DeSantis team this year after infamous troll Christina Pushaw left to join the governor’s campaign.
In typical DeSantis World fashion, Redfern wrote to Confider: “You’re right. I was wrong - the Daily Beast is actually the head of the Fake News Brigade. I won’t make that mistake again.”
The DeSantis flack then quietly proceeded to delete each of these tweets, plus one from 2020 that previously eluded Confider: “OAN. (Something that starts with an O) qAnon Network? Help me out here.”
Redfern did not respond when Confider followed up to ask why he’d deleted the posts.
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