THIS IS WHAT DISENFRANCHISEMENT LOOKS LIKE
‘That’s Not Normal’: DeSantis Signs Voter Suppression Bill Into Law – Bars All Local News but Gives Fox ‘Exclusive’

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis Thursday morning signed a voter suppression bill into law that massively restricts access to the ballot box, following the lead of Georgia GOP Governor Brian Kemp. DeSantis, a Trump acolyte rumored to be a possible vice presidential choice should the former president decide and be able to run in 2024, barred all local news outlets from covering the event for Florida citizens.
We’ve been at the Hilton since 4 this morning, only to be told we can’t go in to hear the governor speak or sign the elections bill. @CBS12 pic.twitter.com/qRjURITTcl
— Madeline Montgomery (@MadelineTV) May 6, 2021
Reporters waiting outside DeSantis event in West Palm. We are being told it’s a Fox News exclusive and private ticketed event. Expecting him to sign controversial elections law today but won’t be able to show you @CBS12 pic.twitter.com/z15QXAE5Cx
— Danielle Waugh (@DanielleCBS12) May 6, 2021
But the Florida Governor did allow one media entity to broadcast the signing: Fox News, as Media Matters’ Matthew Gertz notes:
Definitely not a GOP propaganda network just the network getting exclusive access to a Republican governor’s signing ceremony for a bill to curtail voting so he can do it during a live Fox & Friends interview. pic.twitter.com/2FQp0zqxVQ
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) May 6, 2021
Jay O’Brien, reporter for CBS12 News covering Florida politics:
Confirmed: @CBS12 News is not allowed into the event where @GovRonDeSantis will sign a controversial elections bill into law, per @MadelineTV who is outside.
We were a pool camera, assigned to feed this event to affiliates nationwide.
Now, the only camera will be Fox News
— Jay O’Brien (@jayobtv) May 6, 2021
This isn’t a story about the press being locked out of an event. It’s about Floridians who had their eyes and ears in that room cut off. @GovRonDeSantis signed a law today that will impact ALL Floridians. And only some viewers were allowed to see it.
That’s not normal.
— Jay O’Brien (@jayobtv) May 6, 2021
Voting rights expert, Mother Jones’ Ari Berman, called the move “extremely telling.”
It’s extremely telling that DeSantis claims new Florida voter suppression law intended to boost “election integrity” but barred all media except Fox News from covering bill signing. It was a Fox & Friends “exclusive” pic.twitter.com/NLLPEMcHmj
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) May 6, 2021
Here’s DeSantis signing the bill on Fox News:
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) just signed the state’s new restrictive voting bill live on Fox News (after barring local press from the bill’s signing). pic.twitter.com/hR2ZXooABy
— The Recount (@therecount) May 6, 2021
Reporters caught DeSantis exiting the hotel through a back door. He bragged about him signing the bill on “national news.”
There goes the Governor. He Said the event wasn’t secret, “it was on national news” pic.twitter.com/YWs82cDPjB
— Danielle Waugh (@DanielleCBS12) May 6, 2021
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