NEW YORK (AP) – The Associated Press has called on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to end the “harassing behavior” of one of his press associates against an AP journalist who received threats and others online abuse.
AP CEO Daisy Veerasingham sent a letter to DeSantis on Friday to protest the tweets of press secretary Christina Pushaw to a journalist based in Tallahassee, Florida, in response to a story she wrote noting that one of the multimillion-dollar donors DeSantis invests in a company that makes the COVID-19 Regeneron Treatment Drug. DeSantis has been promoting the treatment of monoclonal antibodies statewide.
In a deleted tweet since then, Pushaw retweeted the article with the message “drag them,” which caused abusive messages to be sent to him.
DeSantis should “assure Florida residents that there is no place” for such behavior in his government, wrote Veerasingham, vice president and chief operating officer of AP. She will become CEO of AP in January.
“While we may disagree about the stories, it is unacceptable and dangerous for a public official to encourage systemic harassment of journalists,” Veerasingham wrote.
Pushaw said he didn’t want his “drag them” comment to be seen as a threat and deleted it because he realized not everyone would know what it means.