Despite being a “hoax” that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has refuted, the liberal narrative about Florida’s alleged “book ban” refuses to die. Some news sites reported last week, around the time of DeSantis’ announcement, that a poem by National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman had been prohibited from a Miami-Dade County primary school. It had been relegated to the grade-specific section of the bookcase.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is also a presidential candidate, joined the fight by tweeting criticism of Governor DeSantis. Our pals at Twitchy noted that after learning more about the topic, he admitted his guilt.
A Washington Post article was shared by RFK Jr. on Twitter with the caption, “Ron DeSantis cheers the removal of an Amanda Gorman poem from a school library in Florida.”
After conducting additional investigation, he realized his mistake and set out to set the record straight. The poetry book wasn’t taken off the shelves entirely, but it was relocated. To be clear, he said, “DeSantis had nothing to do with the school’s action.” Regarding the established media, he also made a very convincing argument. The Washington Post has written an editorial condemning his silence in defense of Amanda Gorman. Overall, it’s not as serious of a problem as the WaPo made it out to be.
Many people, including Christina Pushaw of the DeSantis War Room, found RFK Jr.’s admission of guilt to be impressive. People started talking about how they wanted to vote for him in the primary against President Joe Biden, and others joined in.
Since it first surfaced last week, Twitchy has been keeping tabs on it, paying close attention to how many alarms were instantly raised. To borrow RFK Jr.’s appropriate framing of the problem, it turns out that The Washington Post is far from the only outlet to have blown the story out of proportion.
Multiple articles in USA Today tried to make a big deal out of the story before finally admitting that the poem had simply been relocated. The Hill, POLITICO, and the AP all carried related stories. Since Gorman has been continually doubling down, spreading the truth has become more challenging.
Twitchy, however, has brought attention to the fact that Gorman has intensified his efforts. Her pinned tweet is an open letter announcing her participation in a lawsuit for which she is seeking financial support.