During the same Wednesday show in which she compared former President Trump to Osama bin Laden, MSNBC’s ReidOut host Joy Reid and legal analyst Glenn Kirschner showed their penchant for “Blue-Anon” conspiracies as they insinuated, without evidence, that Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) could be caught up in the alleged sex scandal involving Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL).
Reid and Kirschner were discussing the latest leaks in the investigation surrounding Gaetz and numerous associates when Reid suggested that, if Gaetz wants to avoid serious prison time like associate Joel Greenberg, he too will have “to give up somebody bigger than him.”
This was despite the fact that Gaetz has denied any and all wrongdoing and called the leaked news stories “smears” that “range from distortions of my personal life, to wild — and I mean, wild — conspiracy theories.”
Invoking a 2018 Bahamas trip reportedly being investigated by the FBI, Reid boasted that one Gaetz associate and attendee was “a guy named Jason Pirozzolo, the hand surgeon and GOP fundraiser to Ron DeSantis, who, apparently, Gaetz wanted to turn into the attorney general of Florida.”
Reid also invoked Florida Secretary of Department of Business & Professional Regulation Secretary Hasley Beshears to wonder if DeSantis would also come under fire from investigators: “If you’re Ron DeSantis, does this feel like it’s creeping closer to you? Because these are your friends. These are your allies.”
Wait, so are they really going to make this the latest attempt at using the tiresome phrase “the walls are closing in?” It sure seems like it!
Kirschner went all in, suggesting DeSantis might want to batten down the hatches like he suggested Gaetz had to when Greenberg’s lawyer said, after his client reportedly accepted a plea deal, that he doubted Gatez was “feeling very comfortable.”
Kirschner then leveled the insinuation that DeSantis could be in for a world of hurt:
[Y]ou have to believe that DeSantis — I mean, these are his boys. These are his guys, right? We’ve seen the pictures. We’ve heard the stories. You have to believe that Ron DeSantis, if he has done anything wrong, feels like things are creeping closer and closer to him.
In less than four years, Kirschner has built a resume of conspiracy theories. Here are just a few examples:
- In December 2018, Kirschner suggested Trump wasn’t actually elected president.
- Fast-forward to March 2019 and Kirschner said Paul Manfort’s prison sentence made him “embarrassed” and “upset” as an American citizen.
- Speaking of embarrassing, Kirschner debased himself when he said House testimony during Trump’s first impeachment gave him “patriotic goosebumps.”
- And since the start of the pandemic, Kirschner has repeatedly called for Trump to face criminal charges for having helped kill the hundreds of thousands of Americans that have perished from COVID-19.
Put this all together and you have what some have quipped as an attempt to smear DeSantis after having seen how CBS’s 60 Minutes and correspondent Sharyl Alfonsi won’t face punishment for act of journalistic malpractice against the Sunshine State governor.
This unsubstantiated conspiracy theory against the Sunshine State’s governor was made possible thanks to the support from advertisers such as Fidelity, Gold Bond, and Lincoln. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant MSNBC transcript from April 14, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s The ReidOut
April 14, 2021
7:35 p.m. EasternJOY REID: So, the question for Gaetz, because, obviously, Greenberg has to give somebody bigger than him. That would be Gaetz. Here is, at least per the reporting, the people who were on that Bahamas trip. Notice if you see somebody’s name that rings a couple of times. You had at least five women, per Politico. You had Gaetz. You had a guy named Jason Pirozzolo, the hand surgeon and GOP fundraiser to Ron DeSantis, who, apparently, Gaetz wanted to turn into the attorney general of Florida. There’s Halsey Beshears, a former state legislator and former appointed official in the DeSantis administration. If you’re Ron DeSantis, does this feel like it’s creeping closer to you? Because these are your friends. These are your allies.
GLENN KIRSCHNER: Yes, just as Greenberg’s lawyer said about Matt Gaetz when he left the courthouse the other day, he said, you know what, if I were Matt Gaetz, I don’t think I’d be all that comfortable right about now, you have to believe that DeSantis — I mean, these are his boys. These are his guys, right?
REID: Yeah.
KIRSCHNER: We’ve seen the pictures. We’ve heard the stories. You have to believe that Ron DeSantis, if he has done anything wrong, feels like things are creeping closer and closer to him.
