Mainstream media piles on attacking Casey DeSantis
Fox News hosts of ‘Outnumbered’ react to the left targeting the first lady of Florida for her ‘insular marriage.’
It's not unusual for the spouses of prominent politicians to receive media scrutiny, but it is for there to be such hostility towards one just weeks into a presidential campaign without a controversy or scandal at the center of it. Case in point: Casey DeSantis.
DeSantis, the wife of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, began receiving intense media coverage even before her husband formally entered the 2024 GOP primary race. Last month, Politico ran a story titled "The Casey DeSantis Problem: ‘His Greatest Asset and His Greatest Liability,’" which quoted ex-Republicans who have become prominent Democrat allies like MSNBC contributor David Jolly, Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson and political strategist Mac Stipanovich. Raising more eyebrows was Politico quoting Donald Trump loyalist Roger Stone, who compared the governor's wife to Lady Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth, the power-hungry character from William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" who pushed her husband to kill the king to become queen, was a comparison that Politico leaned into despite acknowledging Stone's analogy was "hyperbolic."
"The more complicated but also more instructive reality is that she is neither the fawning caricature she’s made out to be in conservative and even at times mainstream media nor a Shakespearean villain," Poliitco wrote. "She might well be a bit of both, say even some DeSantis proponents, and somewhere in this tension sits the central dynamic of the pending DeSantis campaign. She can ameliorate some of the effects of his idiosyncrasies. She can also accentuate, even exacerbate, his hubris, and his paranoia, and his vaulting ambition — because those are all traits that they share."
Notably, Politico previously derided the Lady Macbeth trope during the 2022 midterms when it was used against the spouses of prominent Democrats like First Lady Jill Biden and Gisele Fetterman, wife of future Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa.
Casey DeSantis, wife of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, has been the subject of media attacks ever since her husband entered the 2024 presidential race. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Fox News contributor Joe Concha told Fox News Digital it's "elitism" from news outlets like Politico that are "on full display."
"Never would any of these so-called news outlets even consider reporting on Jill Biden in this fashion," Concha said. "It's activism. Not journalism. And objective news consumers stopped trusting the messenger a long time ago."
The attacks only ramped up since then. Earlier this month, an editor for the left-wing Daily Beast described the Florida first lady as "Walmart Melania" for wearing a "ghastly" leather jacket that read "Where woke goes to die," attempting to link it to the 2018 fashion statement from former First Lady Melania Trump's jacket that read "I really don't care, do u?"
"Casey DeSantis’ coat is just like her husband Ron DeSantis' campaign: Crude. Grasping. Saying the ugly part out loud. Whereas Trump would wink-wink at the fascists… DeSantis wants to peel off Trump’s base by being even more explicit about who he intends to target. You can see it right there on his wife’s jacket: DeSantis’ Florida is where the woke go to die—and a lot of other people die as well," Daily Beast executive editor Katie Baker wrote before citing "one of the highest COVID death rates" as well as pre-DeSantis tragedies like the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando.
The Washington Post raised eyebrows for drawing attention to Casey and Ron DeSantis' "insular marriage." (Office of Gov. Ron DeSantis)
Baker similarly echoed the Lady Macbeth comparison, writing "We’ve got a Sunshine State Lady Macbeth, in her green cape and white gloves, with her middling husband and her thirst for the crown… Whether the GOP’s base will respond to DeSantis and his wife trying to imitate Donald and Melania—whether they’ll be happy buying the knock-offs—is an open question."
TEN MEDIA NARRATIVES WAGED AGAINST RON DESANTIS FROM ‘DON’T SAY GAY' TO PUDDING
"So what does Casey DeSantis want us to know about her?… [W]ith that black leather jacket… She’s telling us she is cheering on a spouse who gets his kicks off targeting his fellow Americans. She’s telling us she’s down with his message of division and dehumanization. She’s telling us they are ready for far more power. She’s incandescent in her black leather jacket, at her husband’s side—both of them seething with hate," Baker added.
On Sunday, The Washington Post published a story that "trac[es] the power of Casey DeSantis," telling readers, "As Ron DeSantis pursues the presidency, his wife’s role is limitless. Casey, 42, isn’t a typical political spouse. Why does that inspire so much fear? Her rise in TV and insular marriage tell the story."
Politico elevated the Lady MacBeth trope against Casey DeSantis after the outlet condemned such characterizations towards wives of prominent Democrats. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
The Post went on to write, "Ron and Casey live as an inner circle of two. They were always two private people, trusting of each other, often exclusively so, but the level of prominence and power they achieved in Tallahassee seemed to insulate their world further, creating a level of distance between Ron and Casey and everyone else," later adding, "This insular couple, who didn’t let people in, who made Tallahassee into an island of their own power, was now asking to be seen and known."
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Fox News' "Outnumbered" co-host Kayleigh McEnany declared The Post article "the most flattering hit piece I've ever read," saying the big takeaway from the story is that the GOP power couple have a "great marriage."
"If this is the worst thing they have on the DeSantises, wow what a great family, a role-model family I would say," McEnany added.
The DeSantis campaign declined to comment.
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