DeSantis spokeswoman target of Florida cartoon criticized as sexist: 'Misogyny gone wild'

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In media news today, an NBC report blasts Biden's 'humiliating' Afghanistan withdrawal, Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin gets accused of 'running PR for the Taliban,' and Andrew Cuomo gets stripped of his Emmy amid sexual harassment scandal

A Florida editorial cartoonist was ripped as sexist and misogynistic on Wednesday for publishing a political cartoon that depicted Gov. Ron DeSantis's press secretary Christina Pushaw as a Covergirl and a Twitter troll.

Andy Marlette of the Pensacola News Journal produced an exaggerated drawing of Pushaw as a "COVID-19 Covergirl and taxpayer-funded Twitter troll." The satirical magazine cover included feature teases like "3 cosmetic enhancements to conceal inner ugliness" and "how bitterness and cynicism can hide your boss' inadequacies."

The cartoon comes on the heels of Pushaw's public dust-up with the Associated Press over a story about DeSantis last week. She publicly ripped the story's reporter for its apparent premise that DeSantis was promoting an effective COVID treatment for political reasons, leading to the AP and DeSantis exchanging angry letters. 

"The flak is always heaviest when you’re over the target, and I am over the target at this point," Pushaw told Fox News about the cartoon. "They cannot prove me wrong because I always come with facts so they have to stoop to attacking my physical appearance."

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"If I were a liberal woman in politics, that would be considered beyond the pale and misogynistic and sexist," she added.

Conservative activists and DeSantis backers attacked Marlette for having drawn the image, saying misogyny was acceptable with a liberal media member as long as it was directed at a Republican woman.

"Can you imagine drawing this about @ChristinaPushaw and thinking it was ok, and can you imagine being a publisher and thinking it's ok to print?" asked Florida GOP Chair of Chairs Evan Powers. "Misogyny gone wild, but the leftist media and @TheDemocrats will give it a pass because of hate."

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It's the latest broadside against DeSantis from the press, following the AP report suggesting DeSantis promoted Regeneron's COVID antibody treatment because a Chicago-based hedge fund that donated to a pro-DeSantis political committee also owned shares of the company. However, the AP also acknowledged the treatment's effectiveness and the comparatively small share the DeSantis supporter's company had in Regeneron.

In an open letter to the news organization, DeSantis called the report a "smear" job.

"I assumed your letter was to notify me that you were issuing a retraction of the partisan smear piece you published last week," DeSantis wrote. "Instead, you had the temerity to complain about the deserved blowback that your botched and discredited attempt to concoct a political narrative has received."

The outlet then accused Pushaw of "harassing" one of their reporters and trying to "activate an online mob" in her attempts to defend the governor.

"We call on you to eliminate this attack strategy from your press office and assure the people of Florida that there is no place for it in their state government," AP CEO Daisy Veerasingham wrote in a letter to DeSantis.

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"They brought this on themselves by publishing this kind of dangerous misinformation," Pushaw told Fox News in response.

Fox News' David Rutz contributed to this report.