FAKE NEWS “HIT JOB”: CBS Edits DeSantis, Pushes False Narrative

Today on Sekulow, a fake news hit job as CBS edits DeSantis and pushes a false narrative.

Live from Washington DC, Sekulow Live. They don't believe in facts. It was a political narrative. It was done with malicious intent and a reckless disregard for the truth. Phone lines are open for your questions right now.

Call 1-800-684-3110. They would not talk to the people who were most relevant to this because they know those key Democrats, Jared Moskowitz, Mayor Dave Kerner, would blow up their narrative. So they just put their head in the sand and pretended like those facts didn't exist.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. So Ron DeSantis speaking out. Now 60 minutes in hot water with not just Republicans and conservatives but Democrats as well. This is after they aired a story on Sunday about Florida's vaccine rollout which has gone tremendously well and focused in large part on their retired population and making sure that they, the most vulnerable, got their vaccines first.

I think now 75% of that age group is now vaccinated in the state of Florida which is one of the biggest states in the country. So that's basically everybody who wanted one can get one. And then you had 60 minutes come out and try to allege that it was some scheme between public supermarket and the DeSantis PAC because Publix, which by the way if you were a major Florida based company, you might donate to the Republican incumbent governor's PAC. They donated 100 grand. I'm sure they did.

I'm sure they did as well. 60 Minutes of course didn't look into any of their past history of donations to see if they've donated to both sides. They likely have.

But even if they haven't, so what? It's a major company. It's an incumbent governor. They tried to make the piece all about how it was inappropriate for Publix to get this in a few counties in the state of Florida.

Not the entire state but in a few counties. So we're going to play it for you when we come back from the break so you can hear how 60 Minutes set it up. But 60 Minutes is supposed to be somewhat trustworthy. They do kind of like set pieces.

They spend a lot of time on them. And yet here Sharon Alfonsi, she is part of the left wing out of control media apparatus and the reason why shows like 60 Minutes will likely be shows no one's ever heard of 20 years from now. I think, look, I think what they did is irresponsible journalism but it's also, it is totally outrageous but yet predictable at the same time. Yeah, I would say share this right now because when you see the contrast, if you're watching on Facebook right now, if you're watching on Twitter, if you're watching on YouTube, we're going to show you both the edit, what you saw on TV, what aired on television.

And then following that I believe the full response which was intelligent, it was eloquent, it was well done, it was, as he said, kind of irrefutable the way that they laid out why they decided to go in the path they did for vaccinations. Very interesting, but I even showed this to members of my family this morning and it just gives you a sickening feeling to your stomach to know this is not some sort of conservative news headline you're grabbing saying fake news narrative that they are selectively editing specifically people who have a potential also to do pretty well in the future of the Republican Party. They are editing those people to make them look like buffoons when you watch a really great answer.

So we're going to play that for you. Again, we've always talked about how the news selectively edits, how the news specifically always pushes their narrative regardless of what they say. And they say, Governor DeSantis didn't sit down with us. Guess what? This is exactly why.

No one sits down with you anymore. No one sits down with news because there's no trust that everything won't be edited completely out of context or edited out completely. They've not done a piece yet on the fact that Newsom's being recalled and the amount of signatures well surpassed the number you needed. They haven't done anything on the Cuomo nursing home scandal, but yet they're trying to say that three West Palm Beach County, a couple other counties in Florida, public shouldn't have been the only one with the vaccine.

It doesn't even make sense. Well, it doesn't make sense, especially when you find out that Walgreens and CVS had a specific task that they were engaged in on COVID vaccines. And they didn't ask any local Democrats either, which was so interesting. In fact, the former head of emergency management for Florida is a Democrat, a friend of mine, Jared Moskowitz. And he came out with a statement as well because of how wrong this was.

It was his department that made this contract that had nothing to do with the governor's office. And we mainly laugh off 60 minutes because a lot of our audience probably doesn't watch it, but you're talking about a show that's still bringing in seven, eight, nine million people watching thinking this is their trusted news source. This is why you have to expose what's going on at a lot of these major networks.

And this is just real proof and we'll get it in the next one. Share it with your friends and family and give us a call. 1-800-684-3110. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our matching challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift.

Alright, welcome back to Sekulow. So let's start off with this. This is what you would have seen if you're watching the show, and certainly what you've heard if you had it on the background, if you're listening on radio. This is how 60 Minutes portrayed their investigative journalist piece about Publix delivering the vaccine in Florida. And if you don't know anything about Publix, you'd know that it has, you wouldn't know that it has over 800 stores alone in the state of Florida. It is the number one grocer in Florida. It's on every corner in every town in Florida, if not multiple corners of every town in Florida.

So take a listen. This is how 60 Minutes tried to portray their interaction with Governor DeSantis. We wanted to ask Governor DeSantis about the deal, but he declined our request for an interview.

We caught up with them south of Orlando. Publix, as you know, donated $100,000 to your campaign, and then you rewarded them with the exclusive rights to distribute the vaccination in Palm Beach. So first of all, what you're saying is wrong. How is that not pay-to-play?

That's a fake narrative. I met with the county mayor, I met with the administrator, I met with all the folks at Palm Beach County, and I said, here's some of the options. We can do more drive-through sites, we can give more to hospitals, we can do the Publix.

And they said, we think that would be the easiest thing for our residents. But Melissa McKinlay, the county commissioner in the Glades, told us the governor never met with her about the Publix deal. The criticism is that it's pay-to-play, Governor. It's wrong, it's wrong, it's a fake narrative. I just disabused you of the narrative, and you don't care about the facts.

Because obviously I laid it out for you in a way that is irrefutable. And so it's clearly not. Isn't there the nearest Publix?

No, no, no, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong. That's actually a fact. That is definitely not a fact. If you are in any market in Florida, any major town, you're not 30 miles away from a Publix. I mean, you'd have to be very rural area.

Very, very rural. That's not what they were talking about. They were talking about Palm Beach County. And he said that some person, the Glades, some county commissioner, not the county commission, not the mayor, not the main person, a random county commissioner had not heard from the governor directly. But the county mayor of Palm Beach County, a Democrat, said, quote, I watched the 60 Minutes segment on Palm Beach County last night and feel compelled to issue this statement.

The reporting was not just based on bad info, it was intentionally false. I know this because I offered to provide my insight into Palm Beach County's vaccination efforts and 60 Minutes declined. They know that the governor came to Palm Beach County and met with me and the county administrator and we asked to expand the state's partnership with Publix to Palm Beach County. I mean, his statement goes on thanking Governor DeSantis for his work. My buddy, again, Jared Moskowitz, former head of the director of Florida Division of Emergency Management said, I said this before and I'll say it again.

Publix was recommended by the Florida Division of Emergency Management and the Florida Department of Health as the other pharmacies were not ready to start. Period. Full stop.

No one from the governor's office suggested Publix. It's absolute malarkey. So we have the full clip. So what you just heard was just the 60 Minutes edit. And I think, look, this is going to take you a few minutes. If you're listening on radio, just know that this is how long of an answer he gave and how specific.

You heard what they played. You know, a minute, a minute of going back and forth, mostly banter of false narrative. No, no, no, false narrative. This was the real... Basically, they were saying you gave a hundred, Publix gave you $100,000, you gave him a contract.

Yeah, it made him look like he was on the defense and certainly tried to make him a hothead. Let's actually listen to, and this is, I believe, the original sources from the Florida Channel or someone who aired it in its entirety. So here you go. Take a listen to this.

Governor Ron DeSantis. So first of all, what you're saying is wrong. That's a fake narrative. So first of all, when we did the, the first pharmacies that had it were CVS and Walgreens, and they had a long-term care mission. So they were going to the long-term care facilities. They got vaccine in the middle of December.

They started going to the long-term care facilities the third week of December to do LTCs. So that was their mission. That was very important. And we trusted them to do that. As we got into January, we wanted to expand the distribution points. So yes, you had the counties, you had some drive-through sites, you had hospitals that were doing a lot.

But we wanted to get it into communities more. So we reached out to other retail pharmacies, Publix, Walmart. Obviously, CVS and Walgreens had to finish that mission. And we said, we're going to use you as soon as you're done with that. For the Publix, they were the first one to raise their hand and say they were ready to go.

And you know what? We did it on a trial basis. I had three counties. I actually showed up that weekend and talked to seniors across four different Publix. How was the experience? Is this good?

Should you think this is the way to go? And it was 100% positive. So we expanded it, and then folks liked it. And I can tell you, if you look at a place like Palm Beach County, they were kind of struggling at first in terms of the senior numbers.

I went, I met with the county mayor, I met with the administrator, I met with all the folks at Palm Beach County, and I said, here's some of the options. We can do more drive-through sites. We can give more to hospitals. We can do the Publix.

We can do this. They calculated that 90% of their seniors live within a mile and a half of a Publix. And they said, we think that would be the easiest thing for our residents. So we did that. And what ended up happening was, you had 65 Publix in Palm Beach. Palm Beach is one of the biggest counties, one of the most elderly counties.

We've done almost 75% of the seniors in Palm Beach. And the reason is because you had the strong retail footprint. So our way has been multifaceted. It has worked.

And we're also now very much expanding CVS and Walgreens now that they've completed the long-term care mission. Yes? And it's wrong. It's wrong. It's a fake narrative. I just disabused you of the narrative, and you don't care about the facts.

Because obviously I laid it out for you in a way that is irrefutable. You know, I need to say something here, because I think Rhonda Santas showed his legal skills on this. And that is, and CVS, which owns 60 Minutes, their response is outrageous. Here's what they said. They've been called on the carpet by CNN.

They've been called on the carpet by Democrat members of Florida's government. And this is what CVS 60 Minutes said. As we always do for clarity, 60 Minutes used the portion of the governor's over two-minute response that directly addressed the question from the correspondent. That is a completely false statement. That did not completely address the response.

The governor gave a response. They didn't put in there about the fact that Walgreens and CVS were responsible for long-term care facilities. They were going into the nursing homes and providing care, the vaccination. That they were not at that point ready to then take on this additional responsibility. Publix was.

I went to Publix in Florida. I mean, look, and the fact of the matter is, they've had one of the best distribution systems set up in the country. But CVS knows this. They had the data. They had the reports. They didn't go talk to Jared Moskowitz. They didn't talk to the mayor of Palm Beach County.

No. What did they do? Make a fake news story. Yeah, listen to the mayor of Palm Beach County. A Democrat, David Kerner, issued a statement but also spoke out by seven. You know, it was a surreal moment for me because, you know, I had to seek out the producers of 60 Minutes. I was the county mayor. I am the county mayor. I was the one that sat in the meeting. I was the one that asked for Publix's assistance in this county. And to not have that perspective included, it was sort of a surreal experience. But they had some county.

What was it? Some county commissioners say that they didn't meet with DeSantis on their own. An individual county commissioner.

From the Glades. Which is not Palm Beach. Again, they're just coming up with things to push a narrative. There's nothing to do. They're trying to take down a potential Presidential candidate. Absolutely. That's all this is, is to try to frame him as someone who's unstable, who's willing to lash out at a reporter for pushing him. When we all actually just heard what happened, clearly that was not the case. And yet still that answer wasn't acceptable to the 60 Minutes. They don't understand. You put in these out of touch reporters who don't know much about America because they only live in cities. And they don't understand that their statement about Publix being that far away from people alone is absurd.

You would have to live in the most isolated part of Florida. And that's not where they were. They were in Palm Beach County, for goodness sakes. And they still had not done their homework. They throw out numbers.

Outside of Orlando, which I can tell you there's Publix like every 15 feet in the Orlando area as a former resident. Wouldn't talk to the Democrat mayor? So it told you, it bypasses partisan politics. This is the next level of the media just trying to put a narrative out there.

They had a narrative. Oh my gosh, Publix gave a political donation to the Republican governor of one of the biggest states in the country. And that's their home base? Well there must be something pay to play. They brought that back. Pay to play is back. The pay to play is not there, so they've got to make it up in one county in Florida. As if in one county in Florida's Publixes were enough for them to say, you know what, we'll give you $100,000 now. Because you gave us Palm Beach County vaccine distribution, which probably nets them hardly anything. Yeah, I mean I assume that maybe the idea is to get more people, obviously in the area, then get more people in your store.

I don't know, you can go pick up some stuff while you're waiting. CBS and Walgreens are the only two places giving out shots. Other than he said even drive-thru was an option, but it's not an option for some of these shots because you've got to wait 15 minutes before you leave. So you need places that are large.

CBS and Walgreens are now giving them there because they're done with the initial mission of getting them to people who are in care homes. Yeah, I think it's a ridiculous thing that you're going to see. This is why honestly it's backfiring for them in some ways because we're exposing them, but everyone is. The conservative media has now seen what was a terrific response from Governor DeSantis. And I think this only, at the end of the day, is going to help him because people like us are bringing it to light.

Which means a lot of you guys who do not watch 60 Minutes, I have a feeling, now are seeing, like you said, someone who probably has a bright future as a conservative. Yeah, that's right. They're trying to do everything they can to take down people like this. So they use the pay-to-play, they make this short piece where they talk over him talking.

Yes. They show that he's still responding to their answer in a smart, kind of just laying it all out their way. Here's the Democrats you can talk to. But those weren't the Democrats they wanted to talk to.

So they had to find some county commissioner no one's ever heard of from a smaller city within Palm Beach County instead of Palm Beach or West Palm Beach. And this is what you get. We'll be right back on Secular. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our Matching Challenge today. Make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family.

Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. If you want to talk to us on air 1-800-684-3110, what do you think of this latest move by the mainstream media? This would be about the mainst of the mainstream media shows, 60 Minutes, trying to slander a Republican governor because of the excellent job they've done. See, Florida's done too good of a job. They didn't kill enough people intentionally like in New York. And so, Florida's done too good of a job and it's a Republican governor, so, oh, we've got to come up with something.

He must have gotten paid to do such a good job for his people in Florida. And so, we'll go to the smallest county near Palm Beach, which has 13 million people in it. 13,000. This county has 13,000. Right.

The Glades. 13 million versus 13,000. So, the governor didn't call one of their county commissioners. 1.3 million versus 13,000.

Yeah. Their county commissioner didn't get a direct phone call from the governor himself, so they were mad. But inside the county, we know that they actually put special vaccine sites because those places might not be as close to a Publix.

Take a listen from DeSantis himself, Bite16. Palm Beach calculated 90% of their seniors live within a mile and a half of a Publix. So, when we put it in there, their numbers started going through the roof, so it succeeded there. But what they didn't tell you also, Tucker, is when there was a need in a more rural part of the county, like near Lake Okeechobee, we set up a separate site in a small town called Pahokee. They didn't tell you that. They didn't tell you that we were doing African-American church vaccination drives before Publix ever gave a single shot. They didn't tell you that. And all of that should have been there, because that would have covered the Glades commissioner, because that's what they were talking about there.

The other side of the lake in Florida. I mean, this just gets to the heart of it. It doesn't matter if you ignore them, which he did initially, but you allow them to your press conference and you give them a two and a half minute answer.

They won't play that. They talk over that. They came in with a narrative. They come in with a story.

They just need to act like they've got you on record, cut it up, and then hope no one says anything, because everybody hates Republicans. But they play the fact that this Glades County commissioner wasn't reached out, didn't get an individual reach out by the governor. Ignoring the fact that the county mayor for Palm Beach County praised the mayor, the governor, for what he did. And Jared Moskowitz, the head of Florida's EMS, Emergency Management Services, said, wait a minute, this was our program that we did. And our idea to do this, because public was so readily accessible and the other two pharmacies were engaged in long-term care utilization.

I still can't believe they lopped that out too. So not only did they not put the right government officials in there and reference someone that's irrelevant, frankly, to the discussion. But then they leave out what those other pharmacies were actually doing.

Yeah, they did respond, by the way. 60 Minutes said, their spokesperson said, as we always do for clarity, 60 Minutes used the portion of the governor's over two-minute response that directly addressed the question for the correspondent. So they said they just used, you know, the portion that they felt was relevant. The portion, the reason they think it's relevant is two people arguing. And that's really what they showed. They really showed hostility between... Why would you watch these shows? It's insane. Look, back in, you demand a retraction, and I think they should.

In the old days. I think you should. At this point, I think you should, everyone should reach out and try to tell 60 Minutes, this is ridiculous, that there should be some journalistic integrity. Because at this point, not only you're pushing a false narrative, you're pushing something that could be very dangerous to a lot of people.

Because they think, I can't even get the vaccine where I am, because look, this is how it's done. These are where things get much more dangerous and the media doesn't understand they're really playing with fire and they're playing with people's lives. I want to ask our audience for your reaction to all of this. To the media distorting this the way they did, which is an unbelievable distortion. The fact that this is the beginning of Presidential politics already at play.

What do you think about this? 1-800-684-3110, 800-684-3110. Where are you getting your media information from these days?

800-684-3110. Can we go to the Major League Baseball story for a moment, too? Oh, absolutely.

Because this one is unbelievable, in my view. So, you know, they moved, Major League Baseball hypocrites moved the All-Star game out of Atlanta. And they announced that it's now going to Colorado. Our friend, Senator Tim Scott, had a great tweet.

I want everybody to listen to what Tim Scott said. Now remember, they moved it out of Atlanta because of changes to the election laws in Georgia. Passed by the legislature. Election laws, by the way, that are still more gracious, if you will, than Delaware, where Joe Biden's from. And, as you're about to find out, Colorado, where they moved it to.

These are Tim Scott's words. Georgia, voter ID, 17 days of early voting. Colorado, voter ID, 15 days of early voting. Atlanta is 51% black. Denver is 9.2% black.

The MLB is moving the Major League Baseball All-Star game out of Atlanta, which has more day of voting rights than Colorado. The woke's are at it again, folks. That's coming from Tim Scott, the senator from South Carolina. They moved it to a state that has less voting rights than Georgia.

Do you understand what's going on here? And it isn't, you said it in our pre-meeting, Logan, it's a Georgia animus. It's an against Georgia thing. Yeah, and this has happened over and over and over.

And this is, again, these are facts. This is proof that it is because, you're right, they moved it to a state that you said has the same, if not more, restrictive rights, voting rights, or voting laws, not even voting rights, voting laws than the state of Georgia. But the state of Georgia always gets hit with this because it is a complicated state. It's in the heart of the South.

It was recently flipped blue, but still, if you looked at just the map, a large portion of it is still a red state. However, obviously Atlanta has become a huge metropolitan area, one of the biggest in the country, which obviously will make it skew more liberal. And they have these constant things because they're doing business in a state, big business, like Hollywood is, like these major companies are doing, in Georgia, where a lot of the people still are much more conservative. They have a conflict of interest.

When Amazon wants to move to town and Google wants to move to town, you have to always look at these issues. And honestly, they're sticking their necks in places that no one really, no one would even be questioning if they were holding the all-star game in Atlanta. It wouldn't even have been a thought process.

No one would have thought, oh, well, that's, how dare they? But what they do, they bow down to people on the internet who have a perceived pressure that's not even real. It's not even your fan base. Well, they play baseball. The guy's a member of Augusta. It's not your fan base.

Oh, yeah, the head, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, a member of Augusta National that, you know, the woke mob hates Augusta National. They always have. They've tried to, you know, take that down.

Of course, harder to move a golf course. So, but yeah, again, I would say that Colorado, it's a white state. I mean, it is one of the whitest of the white states in the country.

Yeah, true. Denver is a major metropolitan area with a very small minority population. I mean, under 10 percent. And who do you think you're punishing when you take it out of a majority African American city to move it to an all-white city?

Good job, Major League Baseball. Reward more white people for what you're perceiving is that white people are doing something bad to black people. So we'll just give it to more white people. This is why, even like Stacey Abrams has said, this boycott of Atlanta is absurd. But the mayor of Atlanta says she supports it. Right. Even though it's hurting her metro area.

Right. So it's all about politics, not people, not people actually getting help, not people actually, you know, the economy improving in an area or the people that rely on those jobs, the events that come with it. No, no, just let's give it over to Colorado, a state which is about the least diverse in the entire country. And that's something nasty about Colorado. It's not their fault. It's no place's fault. But it doesn't, it's not like, again, there's no perfect place.

They have more restrictive voting laws. How long will it last there? Are they going to remove it out of there once this is all out? Maybe. Because this is what's become just a political football, if you will, moving around, moving around.

What's going to be a place that you can actually have any of these events? And you talk about too, their fan base is not this. No. Okay. The fan base isn't some 12-year-old on Twitter.

It's some 15-year-old who gets offended. That's not who watches baseball at night. We'll be right back, second half hour, coming up with Rick Grenell. The most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Live from Washington, D.C., Sekulow Live. And now, your host, Jordan Sekulow. I want to get some of your phone calls too.

1-800-684-3110. Welcome to the second half hour of Sekulow. We're going to be joined by Rick Grenell in the next segment of the broadcast, joining us live. But I do want to get some of the calls.

Let's set up what this is, though. Yeah, so we're talking about, of course, Ron DeSantis, the 60 Minutes piece. They over-edit it. They don't talk to even the Democrats, which you'd think if you were trying to hit a Republican governor, you'd want to call some of the more well-known Democrats in the local area. So 60 Minutes was doing a local story about Palm Beach County and surrounding counties, not the entire state of Florida, to try and take down Ron DeSantis in a pay-to-play scheme that no one was investigating, that no one was looking at.

No law enforcement was looking at it. It was entirely made up. A major corporation gave a donation to Ron DeSantis. Wow. You mean the incumbent governor of one of the top three biggest states in the United States of America got a donation as an incumbent from a major corporation based in that state?

And I'm sure they would never give to the other side. It is absurd, but I do want to take some of your phone calls because Adele, I think, has got a good point. Adele in Tennessee online, too. Welcome to Secular. You're on the air. Hi. Can you hear me? Gotcha. Yeah. Thanks for your show and thanks for your call.

What I want to know is forget about taking, you know, getting going for retraction. Why don't we go after the FCC license? The FCC license. So I think we lost you there, Adele, but the question is, since you've worked in communications for years, did they violate something that could hurt their FCC license? This wasn't broadcast television. This was not cable news, which was not, you know, exactly regulated. This was not opinion piece.

This is 60 minutes. The chances of the FCC, though, actually engaging are very slim on these things, so that's number one. Number two, they're going to say opinion versus fact.

That's number two. They're going to come up with a legal defense. What we have to do is point out, and we're going to do this on this broadcast, and we do it at the ACLJ. This is hypocrisy. It's Major League Baseball hypocrisy when it comes to moving the All-Star game to Colorado, of all places, okay? This is how you respond to 60 minutes.

This is easier than baseball. You don't watch it. The people there will make less money, and it ultimately will become, which it's already becoming kind of like a show that's one foot in the grave. It sounds like that, but when you look at the pure numbers, it's shocking how many people are still watching. You're talking about number one in their slot, seven to nine million people watching. Not a lot in the demographic. The audience is maybe a little older.

I think they were doing about 50,000, 500,000 people in the demographic, but eight, nine million people are watching overall. I think the demographic studies are a mess in general. I do think there should be some accountability.

We should figure out a way. Yeah, she should be fired. Her producer should be fired. The researcher should be fired. They're just saying, no, we played the piece that was relevant.

They're not talking about firing. Because all that is is saying, yes, we played the part that fits the narrative we wanted to show you. Of course. The in-game goal, though, is if you don't like all this, the woke, whatever you want to call it, you just drain it of having its ability to live.

Of its power. So it's already got one foot in the grave, mainstream media, broadcast media. I mean, they can put it on any show with D-level celebrities dancing and probably get higher ratings. Oh, yes.

Right? So how do you kill this area of the news? You make it where they're not the glitterati. They're not so well-paid. They're not multi-million. They're not richer than everybody they talk about.

But that's the problem now with these major networks. These people are multi-millionaires trying to do stories on Glades County, Florida. So they call one commissioner who said, no, I didn't get a call from the governor.

We didn't get any more context than that, though. They didn't say because they called the mayor of Palm Beach or the mayor of Glade. Maybe they called the mayor.

They didn't need to call one of the county commissioners because they talked to the leader or they called the chair of the commission. So they found one random person who I don't even know if they're quote. I don't want to slam them too much because their quote may have been taken out of context. But the whole idea here is this is how bold they're going to be in this post-Trump era leading up to another election cycle.

This is the boldest. See, they're not getting it from the White House. Joe Biden can't put together a sentence, not least a story trying to slam somebody.

And his White House is full of a bunch of pretty wimpy people who are not very good at putting out narratives, stories. In fact, have them taken over the truth about like the border and all that Democrats had to put out. So they've now got the experts in media trying to cover for them. And we cannot let that stand. We have to speak out when this is done to fellow conservatives in such an absurd way, alleging they committed criminal activity.

That's what they did in this piece. We'll be right back with Rick Renell on secular. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith. I'm covering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our matching challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, a play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Alright, so you've got Ron DeSantis being talked over during his answer by 60 Minutes. And ultimately you have the Democrat mayor of Palm Beach County coming out, slamming 60 Minutes. You have the Democrat head of Florida's emergency management services coming out, slamming 60 Minutes, saying that they are lying in their piece, wrong in their piece, made up stories in their piece. And Rick Rinnell is joining us now, special advisor for foreign policy and national security, but also a communications expert as well.

And Rick, I mean, just off the bat, it just seems to me it's like they've got a kill list. Ron DeSantis happens to be on that kill list because he's a rising star in the Republican Party. So they had to allege that he committed criminal activity. And he was in a, here we go again, pay for play scheme with public supermarkets for a $100,000 donation to a PAC that they didn't even say when he got, by the way. Just at some point, his PAC got a donation from a huge company based in Florida. And it must be because, you know, he made that scheme with three counties in Florida to give out vaccines.

Rick? Well, what they have to do in these situations is not give all the facts. And this is the agenda of the legacy media, of the big corporate media. And CBS really honestly needs to come out and correct the record and come clean. What 60 Minutes did should ruin their brand because this is not the first time. And by the way, it only happens to Republicans.

This type of, you know, game that the DC media plays never happens with Democrats. And if you look at the details of the DeSantis 60 Minutes interview, the Democrat from Palm Beach was offered up to 60 Minutes to say, I will talk to you about the decision. And not only did 60 Minutes say we don't want to talk to that guy because it goes against the narrative, they actually put on the air another voice from somebody who completely denied what they knew to be true.

So I think that this is not just a mistake. This was a strategy to try to go after DeSantis and throw some mud on him. And CBS needs to come clean and there needs to be consequences for this. We can't just allow this to linger.

We have to fight back. I was going to say, here's what CBS said, Rick. They said, as always, as we always do for clarity, 60 Minutes used portions of the governor's over two-minute response that directly addressed the question from the correspondent. But that's not true because that's not what directly addressed the answer from the correspondent. That's the false part of this. I mean, that is completely false. And we have the entire response. We played it in the first half of the broadcast. And what bothers me about this is, first of all, Florida has had an excellent rollout of the vaccine.

I got a vaccine in Florida out of Publix. Okay? So I'm an advocate. All right? Number one. Number two.

Go ahead. Can I ask about Publix, Jay? If you live in Florida, you know that Publix is the most popular grocery store. It's on every corner. It would have been a tragedy not to use Publix.

People would have said, why aren't you using the one that's everywhere? And Publix has given money to Democrats, more money to Democrats, actually, than Republicans over the years. Yeah. Florida is known for Publix. I mean, in this little town that Will and I practically grew up in, there were two.

It was the town of no one. So, I mean, this is an absolutely ridiculous point of view for people. They, again, try to spin it, spin the narrative. I think Rick is right. I would love there to be some kind of accountability from the news, not just, well, he answered the part.

I don't think we're looking for yes and no answers when it comes to these type of accusations. And, of course, they just clipped the beginning, a weird part in the middle that makes no sense. And in the end, to make him look like he's this raving, crazy governor, you know, and it's absolutely insane. And I really dislike it because he gave one of the few times a politician actually gave a pretty darn good answer, three-minute answer that really laid out all the claims. And, you know, it was just infuriating when you watch it in the morning.

I think the first thing when I got up, I watched it and was just so upset because this is the problem. Yeah, and for Rick, I think for our audience, too, if 60 Minutes gets away with saying this is what we do for clarity, we just cut out the portion that is important. But if they get away with it, the same producer gets away with it, the production team, not just the spokesperson, not just the host who is not just the correspondent, but the producers who are putting all this info together, and they get on to next week, well, they're going to go through the hit list.

So it was Ron DeSantis this week, who are we going to allege criminal conduct about next week that we need to take out that's a Republican on the rise, and the next week, and the next week. And so, yeah, I get that a lot of our audience is moving away from this, but it still is highly influential media. This is an amazing point, and it's something that we can't let go. And we should think about it, ACLJ, what role we could play, because I'm tired of the outrage machine. We all know we talk about 60 Minutes for a couple of days, and then we go back to allowing CBS or NBC or ABC or NPR, which just had another flop, to just go back to the same old game that they play. What can we do to stop this?

And I will say this. We need senators to stand up and start doing something. Stop the tweeting, stop the outrage machine, and do something, because if I were an elected senator sitting in Washington, D.C., and this happened, I would be hauling CBS in to say, what's going on, and why are you playing the role of an advocate rather than the role of journalists?

I was thinking there's one thing we could do, and that is this, because it's in the public interest. They are broadcast license holders, as Logan said. They own stations.

So the FCC, unlike cable, the FCC does have authority. We could. We've got to research it.

People could file a complaint with the FCC for an intentional misrepresentation of a story, and not, or at least say correct it, or in X amount of days, we do this. You should look into it. You should look and see how you can actually fight against this.

Look, where are the Facebook fact checkers now? These are these ridiculous things. Rick, you talk about the ACLJ. We have FCC lawyers on staff. I mean, Colby Mays, senior lawyer at ACLJ. I think we should do something. Well, they're lawyers that deal with the Federal Communications Commissions on a regular basis, representing TV stations like TBN and others. So these are over-the-air broadcasters, and Colby May from our office, the senior counsel for the ACLJ, is an FCC expert, and you're right, Rick.

I think we probably do need to look at what can be held accountable here. The outrage on this one just, though, coincides to me with the outrage over the Major League Baseball game, because they move it out of Atlanta. Now, they move it out of Atlanta because of the Atlanta, Georgia, Georgia's voting law that was passed by the House and Senate and signed by the governor. So they move it to Colorado.

Okay. So our friend, Senator Tim Scott, sent a great tweet. He said, Georgia, voter ID, yes, 17 days of early voting. Colorado, voter ID, same voter ID, 15 days of early voting. Atlanta is 51% black. Denver is 9.2% black.

The Major League Baseball is moving the All-Star game out of Atlanta, which has more day-of-voting rights than Colorado. The Wokes are at it again, folks. And I think this is the same problem. It's a clown show in Washington, D.C. These people, they literally just chase headlines.

They don't do research. The rest of us out in America are laughing at them. But it's time that we really fight back and clean up. I'm sorry, but Major League Baseball made a very big mistake. By entering into politics, they had been on the sidelines. They had been the ones that said, you know, we're not going to participate in all of this political stuff.

And I don't think that they should be conservatives. I think they should just be baseball. And they had been traditionally doing that, except for some reason this new Major League Baseball commissioner convinced the owners to step in it.

The owner, by the way, Major League Baseball commissioner, that's a member of Augusta National. One of the more restricted, yeah, okay. Exactly. I mean, we may need to call for his removal, because we can't just be outraged and talk about these issues and then go back and do nothing. We have to put our money where our mouth is. And I'm not saying that we have to boycott, because I know we hate the idea of boycotts that's against the cancel culture. It's against the ideas that we have against the cancel culture. But I do think that we have a strong voice. And we have to be consistent with that voice and what we buy and what we purchase and the services that we participate in.

And I think it's high time that we collectively put our money where our mouth is. As Rick said, this is not the fans. This is not the people working in the stadiums. These are not the people running the arenas. Who gets hurt are those people, fans, and people who are working at not great paying jobs. Those are the people that get hurt from these decisions, not the big corporate overlords of the MLB. This is really hurting the people of Atlanta, people of Atlanta who are, again, selling hot dogs, taking your ticket.

At this point, taking your temperature. Those jobs are not super high paying jobs, but they're needed right now. But as of course, we have to change all that.

But it's not going to hurt the CEO at all unless something like Rick says happens. I do think we have to start just complaining. And now we have apparatuses to do something about it, Rick, as always.

Thanks for joining us. Folks, when we come back, we're going to start, you have a lot of phone calls coming in. Start taking those calls at 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. Support the work of the ACLJ. We have a matching challenge month in the month of April as well. So March and April, very important for the ACLJ financially. If you can make a contribution, you double the impact of your donation to the American Center for Law and Justice at ACLJ.org. That's ACLJ.org.

We'll talk to you in just a minute. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Alright, let's get to the call. 1-800-684-3110. We're going to go in order.

People have been hanging on. Let's go to Christine in Florida online for her. Hey, Christine. Hey. You're on the air.

Okay. There's so many things I could have responded to since I've been listening to you for the last 20 minutes, but I initially called in because you had asked where our news source was coming from because we are not getting it from cable. The best thing we can do is stop watching 60 Minutes. Let their ratings go down. But if people will start to do their research, as probably millions of us have, you can find Bannon's War Room. You can find Firewall.

You can find Flashpoint. Just saying. I mean, we do an hour a day here, but, you know, I'm just kidding.

Go ahead. I'm going to you next because even though you're attorneys, I turn you on every day at noon to find out truth. Even though we're lawyers. You're the untrusted ones. That's why you have me and Rick and others to balance it out. Yeah, exactly right. Well, I appreciate your call.

Look, I think they all turn to me. Finding alternative sites for news. Obviously, you've got to make sure where you're checking the facts. People don't watch 60 Minutes for hit pieces on random hit pieces on governors. In dealing with COVID. Successfully. In a county.

In a county in Florida. It's bigger stories like The Nation in COVID. I mean, you could come up with so many things, but their base viewers now are liberal nuts. So only people tuning into that and some you said the very elderly who and I don't know what the demographic breaks out of that.

Elderly, but you're talking about in the demo, which is 18 for nine is I think they said is usually like a 0.05. It's like half a million. There are millions of people that watch it and it spikes. You know, there's obviously ratings goes, but it's usually in the top five. I mean, I think for a lot of people, they say, is that still on? I mean, that's true for me.

I'll be honest. I don't watch it. I don't like the people that they choose to be on it.

They're all liberals there. They come from other networks a lot of times. Same for the Sunday shows.

I don't know. I don't like any of the Sunday shows that includes Fox News and Sunday show. Yeah. Because I think, you know, that's where Fox News to me gets the biggest thumbs down is still having.

They're so proud of not being like the others, except for other Sunday show where they have to be worse than the other sometimes. Literally. Yeah. I mean, I've done them all.

I've done all five. The nastier, more aggressive. They're honest with their with their bias. Well, he doesn't say I mean, Chris Wallace did the same thing to me years ago and he put put words in your mouth. He gives you a hypothetical and said, aha, you just said I said, wait a minute. That was a hypothetical you gave.

But there's no arguing with these people. So you know what you do? You turn it off. Eventually, if no one watches, then Logan, then if no one watches, then then it's done.

The show will go away. Yeah. I mean, there's there's another thing we take some calls because, look, I mean, you got a lot of people waiting. She complained. So, you know, I'm now aware there are a lot of people on the hold for a long time.

So we should take some more calls. All right. Sharon in Florida online six. Hey, Sharon. Hey, can you hear me?

Yeah, you're on the air. Oh, OK. Thank you. First of all, thank you for taking my call. I've been a resident of Florida for over 50 years.

I moved here when I was a child. It's very disturbing. I'm now seeing on Facebook some negative propaganda about Ron DeSantis, which tells me that the left is terrified of him.

Oh, yeah. Because he had they have no dirt on him, really. He did not come from money. He got a scholarship to Yale.

Sorry to be redundant. He gets his law degree from Harvard. It's a Navy Jag that's a tour with the seal. So there is no dirt. So they have to dig some obscure trash on him.

I got to make sure that's clear, too. This isn't true. What they reported was false. They are lying. So there was no trash on him.

He is not there's no dirt on him at all. I do. I agree with you. Share that they are scared to death of anybody comes out of Florida who has got a good record, has been able to work across the aisle, would easily carry a swing state, takes it out of the Democrat column completely, had Democrats supporting what his position was in this whole incident on this whole issue. When you see the three minute response, two and a half minute response realizes the man who understands his state, but also went to Harvard and has that sort of education. So his response comes in great on both sides. The nerve-wracking part, though, is she said they've got to find trash on him. Even though she's saying it's bad, she was bought into this was somehow maybe wrong what he did. And that's what we have to point out. Sure, they're reporting that on the local area news, too, that are liberal bias coming from local news.

Right, that he's got a pay-for-play program going on on the lucrative vaccine distribution. Again, I get back to you. You're right. Connie in Idaho, she's been holding on line one. Hey, Connie. Hi, thanks for taking my call.

I just wanted to let you know that for media, the only people I listen to are Jay Sekulow Live and Dennis Michael Lynch. The rest is junk and lies. One of those I can endorse. Pretty good, pretty good.

You can decide which. No, Connie, go ahead. We appreciate that.

No, Connie, we appreciate that. But let me ask you this. What is when you saw this story, what was your reaction? Well, I've I figured that it was false because Ron DeSantis seems to be. A more honest on the ball politicians than that, and 60 Minutes is just junk. I mean, you would think if you're going to let someone of of literally taking in a donation, that's criminal conduct. They just flippantly say it, though. Yeah, I mean, pay to play basically in a political campaign violates federal election laws. It violates a lot of things, except none of it was true.

And they didn't even they acted flippant about it, like even if it was true, wasn't that? Because it was a good soundbite. Yeah. All right. OK, we'll keep going through the calls. Go to Elaine in New Hampshire on line three.

Hey, Elaine. Hi, I got to say, I love the ACLJ. That is where I go to find true information. And I wish all lawyers were like you.

If they were, we'd have no problems. It sounds like an infomercial at this point, like we're taking calls like, how do you feel about this pan? It's the best.

I've had it for years. It's great. Thank you, Elaine, though.

We appreciate it. Go ahead. I also look to the FRC Family Research Council at the times and point of view and Janet partial. I find good information there, but I think the serious issue is intentional omission of information or intention to deceive. That really should be a crime because you can't even have conversations with people who this is the only narrative they've been taking in. I mean, you realize they made this.

This was not a story. They made it up. They created they had Ron DeSantis on their hit board. So we need to go after. So they had to come up with something to go after him. And it was probably the clock was counting down.

So who do we not talk to? We had a comment that came in from YouTube. Laurie said, I feel like the liberal media is building a governor DeSantis Presidential run for free.

So it's maybe it's this backfired, backfired, backfired on them. But for the fact that a caller who was upset about it still said they had to find this dirt on him. Right. As if there was dirt, there's dirt. There is no dirt here. That's what's got to be made clear. This isn't just people going around looking for dirt.

They couldn't find any dirt. So they had to make it up. Michelle in California online, too. Hey, Michelle, final call of the day. Hi. OK, so I start out my day listening to you guys.

And I go to training politics online and I want to make a comment. 60 minutes should have been a positive uplifting story, which would have been really good for our country. So can Ron, can he sue CBS because wasn't it slanderous what they did to him? Well, he's a public figure, so the standard is very high.

But we're going to take a look at I'm going to get Colby made from our team to to look at whether we could file a formal complaint with the FCC on this. And I'm saying this because they, like Jordan said, there was no dirt. There was no story.

There was no problem. They created this to fit some narrative they already came up with. And when he laid out the facts and the mayor of Palm Beach County and the head of EMS, both Democrats who were willing to speak, they didn't want to hear from them.

But they did want to hear from a lone commissioner from a rural county. So that tells you everything you need to know about what was going on there. But we'll take a look at it. By the way, ACLJ filed a lawsuit against just filed it. Federal Bureau of Investigation. This is an amendment to the lawsuit that we have had previously. This is now adding the FBI in.

We want to know a lot of information about what was going on with Congressman Swalwell, who's still talking about this stuff. So ACLJ.org matching challenge campaign. Don't forget any amount you donate, we get a matching gift for ACLJ.org.

At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.