Florida’s first lady, Casey DeSantis, recently took a stand against the mainstream media’s targeted attacks on her and her family, asserting that they will not be deterred by partisan scrutiny. In an exclusive interview with “Fox & Friends,” Casey and her husband, Florida Governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, addressed various topics, including media mockery, her battle with cancer, and their family life during the 2024 campaign trail.
Casey candidly addressed the media’s name-calling and personal attacks, stating that when they resort to such tactics, it indicates their reluctance to engage in a substantive debate. Despite being called names like “America’s Karen” and “Walmart Melania,” Casey and her husband remain resilient in the face of criticism. The couple firmly stands by their family, vowing not to back down.
“One thing that the corporate media did get right about me, I do shop at Walmart,” Casey told Ainsley Earhardt. “I think it’s interesting, and you probably can sympathize with this, when they come after you and they’re just calling you names. That means they don’t want to litigate the merits of their case. They don’t want to have that conversation. They want to call you names.”
The DeSantis family has been subject to increased scrutiny since Ron DeSantis announced his presidential bid. However, they have responded by pushing back against the negative attention. Casey shared her harrowing experience of being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, a moment that deeply affected her as a mother with three young children. She recalled the difficulty of facing a cancer diagnosis while trying to shield her children from the pain and uncertainty.
Anybody will say with a cancer diagnosis, when you start hearing those words, it’s not definitive right out of the gate. It is, ‘We see something that is problematic.’ And a really hard part for me was that I had a 4, 3-year-old and a 1-year-old in the house. And it’s like very, very difficult when you look at your children, and they don’t know,” she said while fighting back tears.
“To this day, they still don’t know,” she continued. “They have no idea what mama went through. As a matter of fact, when I was going through six rounds of chemotherapy, six weeks of radiation and three surgeries, couldn’t really use my left arm a lot of times. So I told them… I hurt my arm. I didn’t want to tell them, but through God’s grace I am here.”
Throughout her cancer journey, Casey praised Ron for being a steadfast pillar of support for the family. She commended his resilience and tenacity, which also drew media criticism. Casey empathized with the frustration over the media’s unfair accusations against her husband’s character and took the opportunity to speak from the heart about their experiences.
Regarding their political aspirations, Ron DeSantis is widely seen as a top contender for the GOP nomination in the upcoming presidential race, despite trailing former President Donald Trump in some polls. The DeSantis family sees their mission as preserving the American republic and fighting for the future of the country, a cause they are committed to even if it means weathering personal attacks.
