Following the overwrought coverage from CBS Evening News the previous night, CBS Mornings co-anchor Gayle King clutched her pearls on Tuesday over the NAACP’s ridiculous and false travel advisory for black Americans, which told them to steer clear of Florida because the state was “openly hostile” to minorities. King feared for her two sisters who lived in the state and was beside herself with concern for the black folks who called the state home.
“The NAACP has issued a travel advisory for Florida,” King announced as if the far-left race baiters didn’t have a political motive. “It says the state is, quote, ‘openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals’ due to a series of measures recently signed by [Republican] Governor Ron DeSantis” (The same DeSantis who was reportedly getting ready to launch a presidential bid later this week).
Trying to lend credence to the warning, she added that the NAACP was “not the first civil rights group that issues this kind of warning, which comes as DeSantis prepares for a presidential run. Equality Florida and the League of United Latin American Citizens have also issued warnings.”
Immediately after the report from correspondent Mark Strassmann, King shared her concern for her sisters and other black people living in Florida. “I keep thinking about the black people that live there. I actually have two sisters that live in Florida, what this means for people who live there or people of color who are planning to go to Florida,” she lamented.
King’s fretting continued: “I don't know. It's very unsettling to me on many levels.”
Interestingly, co-anchor Tony Dokoupil rhetorically poured ice-cold water on King and scoffed at some of the assertions from the NAACP:
I think Ron DeSantis is very happy to have this fight. I mean, for the NAACP to say “democracy will prevail,” democracy is prevailing in Florida. The state legislature passed these laws, the governor signed them, that's the process.
Dokoupil also pointed out that DeSantis “got votes from the majority Latino voters, a decent portion of the black population there.” And he concluded by arguing that since “this is the democracy,” critics could “vote him out next time” if they don’t like him.
Let’s rewind a bit to Strassmann’s report seeing as he hyped the “travel advisory” as if it was the State Department cautioning Americans not to travel to hot/war zone.
Strassmann warned of DeSantis’s “conservative crackdown” and boosted “The NAACP's new message: beware of traveling to Florida.” He also spoke with NAACP president Derrick Johnson and spoke of Florida’s supposed hostility as if it was a matter of fact:
STRASSMANN: Why do you believe that Florida is so hostile to black Americans?
JOHNSON: Well, it's been demonstrated by the Governor's action and the policies that have been advanced. And so, we want to make sure the rest of America understands the hostility in which he is governing in his quest to become president.
As evidence of DeSantis’s supposed hostility toward black people, Strassmann noted “He's blocked public high schools from offering an African Americans studies AP course, barred all grades from teaching about … critical race theory.”
Of course, Strassmann failed to admit that the AP course was later approved after a book pushing critical race theory was swapped out with a different book. And wasn’t CRT never taught in schools, to begin with, according to the liberal media?
Gayle King’s ridiculous fretting over the ridiculous “travel advisory” was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Verizon and Ashley Homestore. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Mornings
May 23, 2023
7:40:14 a.m. EasternGAYLE KING: The NAACP has issued a travel advisory for Florida. It says the state is, quote, “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals” due to a series of measures recently signed by Governor Ron DeSantis. Now, they're not the first civil rights group that issues this kind of warning, which comes as DeSantis prepares for a presidential run. Equality Florida and the League of United Latin American Citizens have also issued warnings.
Mark Strassmann has more.
[Cuts to video]
MARK STRASSMANN: In Florida, critic sense hostility from Governor Ron DeSantis and his conservative crackdown in the state. The NAACP's new message: beware of traveling to Florida.
Why do you believe that Florida is so hostile to black Americans?
DERRICK JOHNSON (NAACP, president): Well, it's been demonstrated by the Governor's action and the policies that have been advanced. And so, we want to make sure the rest of America understands the hostility in which he is governing in his quest to become president.
STRASSMANN: DeSantis, just days away from announcing a bid for the White House, has been solidifying his conservative credentials. He's blocked public high schools from offering an African Americans studies AP course, barred all grades from teaching about gender identity and critical race theory, and signed a ban on abortion after six weeks.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob.
STRASSMANN: Is this just politics?
HEATHER WILKIE: I mean it certainly is just politics. Right? But the problem is it impacts lives, and so it may take years for us to unwind the damage that has been done here in Florida.
STRASSMANN: Heather Wilkie leads Zebra Youth. It provides services to LGBTQ teens and young adults in Orlando.
WILKIE: People are so afraid because they’ve seen these targeted attacks. Look at what happened with Disney.
STRASSMANN: More backlash from Florida’s largest private employer: Disney. The company and DeSantis have feuded ever since Disney opposed a state law critics dubbed “don't say gay.” Just last week, the company synonymous with Florida tourism scrapped plans for a billion-dollar new campus in the state.
DESANTIS: Disney may have gotten everything they wanted in Florida for the last 60 years, but there's a new sheriff in town, now.
STRASSMANN: And as for the NAACP advisory, a spokesman for DeSantis called it a stunt. And tourism for Florida is up, a record 137 million tourists visited the state last year.
For CBS Mornings, I'm Mark Strassmann, in Orlando.
[Cuts back to live]
GAYLE KING: Well, I keep thinking about the black people that live there. I actually have two sisters that live in Florida, what this means for people who live there or people of color who are planning to go to Florida. I don't know. It's very unsettling to me on many levels.
TONY DOKOUPIL: Yeah. I think Ron DeSantis is very happy to have this fight. I mean, for the NAACP to say “democracy will prevail,” democracy is prevailing in Florida. The state legislature passed these laws, the governor signed them, that's the process. He got votes from the majority Latino voters, a decent portion of the black population there. And this is the democracy. Vote him out next time.
