Christina Pushaw, press secretary for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), is currently the most effective spokeswoman for the Republican Party.
The Southern California native uses Twitter to share updates from her boss’s office and respond to critics who deliberately spread misinformation. Her tweets often draw the ire of left-wing journalists and Democratic activists. Why? They hate shrewd, impressive conservative women who do their jobs well. And that in itself is a sign of her effectiveness.
Is Pushaw a bomb-thrower who just wants to “own the liberals”? I don’t sense that in her. She’s tactful, thoughtful, stern, and yes, very accessible to the press. These are signs that she’s solemn and deserves to be followed on Twitter.
Here’s why Republican lawmakers should hire more Christin Pushaws to lead their communications efforts.
Pushaw faces Big Tech censorship for doing his job
Last Friday, the Associated Press was unhappy with Ms. Pushaw’s decision to remove their reporting that falsely linked Regeneron to Governor DeSantis’ donors, which Politifact deemed “mostly false.”
This prompted the AP to issue a bizarre rebuke to Governor DeSantis and Pushaw, writing“We call on you to eliminate this attack strategy from your press office.”
This @AssociatedPress I’m writing @GovRonDeSantis today regarding his press officer, @ChristinaPushawand her “direct attempt to mobilize an online mob to attack” @FLPressCorps reporter. “We call on you to eliminate this attack strategy from your press office,” AP executive vice president pleads. photo: twitter.com/ghyK7Lwy2K
— Troy Kinsey (@TroyKinsey) August 20, 2021
“This is unacceptable behavior from a government employee, especially one whose job involves working with the media and communicating with the public.” he wrote Daisy Veerasingham of the AP. “Journalists are routinely subjected to abuse, rape threats, stalking of family members and hacking of their online personas. These actions can lead to violence, physical harm and mental health consequences.”
Would they ask a Democratic governor or his press secretary to do so? Highly doubtful. They would be shouting, at least privately, “Go girl!” if Pushaw were a Democrat or a leftist.
Shortly after the letter was published, Twitter suspended Pushaw for 12 hours for allegedly “harassing” an AP reporter, despite no evidence to suggest such action. AP collaborates with Twitter limit DeSantis assistant’s account? It looks like it.
She he tweeted“Twitter suspended me after AP complained about the response to their debunked article about @GovRonDeSantis. This just proves that Gov. DeSantis is right — yet again. Those who challenge false narratives are too often silenced by corporate media and Big Tech collusion.
“No one from our office ever threatened him,” she said. he told Fox News“His story drew heavy criticism because it was false — and discouraged people from seeking life-saving treatment. Instead of owning up to that and retracting its article, the AP doubled down and tried to write a story about the backlash the reporter faced.”
As Townhall’s Guy Benson noted, “DeSantis’ spokeswoman did not ‘harass’ the journalist. She did her job, he equipped it with the relevant facts and then he smashed it when he wrote an irrelevant article with a crappy headline anyway.”
Seth Mandel of the Washington Examiner agrees with Benson.
This is crazy. They’re just trying to stop Christina from pushing me away. She’s been pushing me away lately and I haven’t written her boss a letter. She’s doing her job. https://t.co/nFAi9Vc1uq
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) August 20, 2021
Were Pushaw’s tweets protected by the First Amendment? Mark R. Weaverformer Deputy Attorney General of Ohio, he wrote“PIO and other government communications specialists – this includes @ChristinaPushaw — have the same First Amendment right to criticize news stories on the Internet as reporters have to publish those stories.”
The First Amendment is not just for American journalists. Government employees like Pushaw should also enjoy these protections.
Pushaw worked for Putin critic Saashivilli, may respond
Former Georgian president and Putin critic Mikheil Saakashvili praised his former employee back in June, Pushaw’s saying: “You know that Christina Pushaw has experience fighting disinformation in Georgia — and now she’s doing the same in America.”
In August, the USC graduate wrote on Twitter that she is not afraid of Twitter trolls, addition“Luckily, none of the leftist Twitter nerds threw Molotov cocktails at my workplace. But that happened in Tbilisi.”
“My story about Sakaashvili is intriguing” – Pushaw he told the Georgian Journallw 2017 “I studied history, specifically Russian history, at university. Of course, in 2008, many of us first heard about Georgia, during the war. I have always been a Republican and as a student I volunteered for John McCain’s campaign. When McCain said, “Today we are all Georgians,” I started looking at the country and its leader and quickly realized what he had done for his country: quite significant achievements compared to neighboring countries, and I admired him for that.”
Republicans and conservatives in communications could take a leaf out of Pushav’s efforts to combat Kremlin disinformation, so they can counter the mainstream media when necessary.
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If Republican lawmakers had more Christina Pushaws on their side, they would win the messaging war. Her approach should be emulated — and replicated — in offices across the country.
There’s a reason Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is becoming increasingly popular with Americans. Staffers like Pushaw also contribute to his appeal.
