PRESIDENTIAL TIMBER!

Ron DeSantis is looking more presidential every day:

The Associated Press called on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to end “harassing behavior” by one of his press aides against an AP reporter who received threats and other online abuse.

Incoming AP CEO Daisy Veerasingham sent a letter Friday to DeSantis protesting tweets by press secretary Christina Pushaw directed at a Tallahassee, Florida-based reporter in response to a story he wrote pointing out one of DeSantis’ multimillion-dollar donors invests in a company making the COVID-19 treatment drug Regeneron. DeSantis has been touting the monoclonal antibody treatment throughout the state.

In a since-deleted tweet, Pushaw retweeted the article with the message “drag them,” which led to abusive messages being sent to him....

Pushaw said she did not mean her “drag them” comment to be taken as a threat, and she deleted it because she realized not everyone would know what it means.

But "Drag Them" wasn't the only phrase Pushaw used in her efforts to sic an online mob on the reporter, Brendan Farrington, as Veerasingham's letter notes.

The @AssociatedPress is writing @GovRonDeSantis today re: his press secretary, @ChristinaPushaw, and her "direct effort to activate an online mob to attack" a @FLPressCorps reporter. "We call on you to eliminate this attack strategy from your press office," the AP's exec VP asks. pic.twitter.com/ghyK7Lwy2K

— Troy Kinsey (@TroyKinsey) August 20, 2021

"Drag Them," "put them on blast," and "Light. Them. Up" are all efforts to encourage threats and abuse, as Pushaw knows (DeSantis too, presumably).

But I wasn't joking at the beginning of this post when I said that this makes DeSantis look presidential. By the debased standards of the modern Republican Party, encouraging an online mob is presidential.

On the other hand, to the mainstream media reporters who are trying to get DeSantis elected president in 2024, what happened here is undoubtedly presidential because DeSantis left the thuggery to an aide. DeSantis isn't personally a thug! So it's all right! Everyone can continue to tout him as the man who'll return us to Republican-daddy normalcy.