A PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign recently took a nasty and false swipe at a Florida journalist Friday, accusing Florida Politics publisher Peter Schorsch of being “bought and paid for by groomers” and former President Donald Trump because he went on a Disney cruise.
After the Never Back Down PAC tweeted a video of the governor touting his battle with Disney, Schorsch posted his own tweet with a photo of the door decor on the entryway to their rooms on a Disney Cruise he and his wife and daughter were taking this weekend.
As Schorsch wrote, this weekend marked the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Disney Cruises, and he and his wife and daughter had “booked this cruise to celebrate that anniversary AND to spite [DeSantis’] lunacy with his war on [Disney].”
The PAC responded shortly thereafter, “We get it, you’re bought and paid for by the groomers and Trump.”
It has been noted that it’s a pathetically common slur that Team DeSantis has deployed for years against any of his critics: that if you oppose any of his legislation or policies on education or social issues, then you are either a “groomer” or supportive of groomers, a direct accusation that you’re a pedophile and condoning the sexual abuse of children.
Christina Pushaw, who served as DeSantis’ official press secretary for several years before taking her spokestroll skills over to the campaign side, is perhaps the most notorious offender, tweeting in March 2022 that anyone who opposed the Parental Rights in Education bill (dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay bill” by its critics) was “probably a groomer or at least you don’t denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children.”
