On Monday’s Today, NBC’s Florida-based correspondent (and incoming White House correspondent) Gabe Gutierrez again targeted 2024 GOP presidential candidate and Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) by ghoulishly tying DeSantis and his administration’s African-American history standards to the racist mass shooter who killed three Saturday at a Jacksonville Dollar General in a predominantly-black neighborhood.
NBC was the lone network to invoke DeSantis in their Monday morning coverage of the racially-motivated killings. Gutierrez at least made the pivot with a portion of DeSantis remarks at a vigil: “What he did is totally unacceptable in the state of Florida.”
Gutierrez chimed in that while DeSantis also said he would ensure the state would “provide more security to Florida HBCUs,” but he then boasted that DeSantis “fac[ed] boos from the crowd.”
The NBC correspondent notably failed to include the fact that Jacksonville councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman (D) came to his defense: “[Y]ou know what? I’m glad you’re here, because you can see the people and the impact it’s had on the community.”
She continued:
We gonna put parties aside cause it ain’t about parties today. A bullet don’t know a party, so don’t get me started...Now if the governor wanted to come here, and he’s bringing gifts to my community, ya’ll know I’m taking the gifts because we’ve been through enough already. And I don’t want to go through no more. Now ya’ll just be quiet just a minute and let the governor say what he’s gonna say[.]
Instead, Gutierrez tied the Florida governor to the shooter with his administration’s new African-American history curriculum that the liberal media and DeSantis’s Republican opponents have falsely claimed condoned and whitewashed slavery.
“DeSantis has faced backlash over efforts to change black history education in public schools with curriculum standards including a controversial provision that some slaves developed skills that could be used for their personal benefit,” Gutierrez claimed.
Before making the immediate pivot to the shooter and his rifle that was “covered in hand-drawn swastikas,” Gutierrez played only a brief soundbite of DeSantis defending the standards in a combative interview with his colleague, Dasha Burns (with little of it having aired on NBC): “So that is — means they developed skills, in spite of slavery, not because of slavery.”
Monday’s smear of irrelevancy against DeSantis was brought to you by advertisers such as Citi and Hyundai. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant transcript from August 28, click “expand.”
NBC’s Today
August 28, 2023
7:07 a.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: New Details in Deadly Shooting]
GOVERNOR RON DESANTIS (R-FL): What he did is totally unacceptable in the state of Florida.
GABE GUTIERREZ: At a prayer vigil, Governor Ron DeSantis vowing to provide more security to Florida HBCUs, but facing boos from the crowd. [CROWD BOOING] DeSantis has faced backlash over efforts to change black history education in public schools with curriculum standards including a controversial provision that some slaves developed skills that could be used for their personal benefit.
DESANTIS [TO DASHA BURNS] [on 08/07/23]: So that is — means they developed skills, in spite of slavery, not because of slavery.
GUTIERREZ: Meanwhile, authorities say the shooter, who took his own life when officers arrived, lived with his parents in this home outside Jacksonville, adding a suicide note was found in his bedroom. An AR-style rifle and handgun, one covered in hand-drawn swastikas, were discovered at the scene.
DUVAL COUNTY, FL SHERIFF T.K. WATERS: His sickening ideology is not representative of the values of the Jacksonville community.
GUTIERREZ: Police say the gunman had no criminal arrest record, but when he was 15 he was held for 72 hours under Florida’s Baker Act for an involuntary mental health evaluation.
