In her interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, Mitchell’s questions were predictably soft - unless they were directed at those bad, evil Republicans. “What does Governor Ron DeSantis not know about black history and the black experience,” Mitchell asked, “when he says that slavery, and the aftermath of slavery, should not be taught to Florida schoolchildren?”
The only problem with that question, and it’s a big problem, is Gov. DeSantis does not oppose it.
Immediately after the interview aired, DeSantis press secretary Bryan Griffin called the question “shameful” in a social media post. He also provided the smoking-gun evidence of a lie by linking to the State of Florida’s African American history curriculum for public schools.
And the Governor’s staff wasn’t done: Griffin told NBC’s producers and show bookers not to bother asking for interviews until Mitchell apologized.
And she did – sort of. Mitchell told viewers she was “imprecise” with her question and admitted Gov. DeSantis is “not opposed to teaching the fact of slavery in schools…”
She went on, however, to point out Gov. DeSantis has opposed the teaching of an “African American studies curriculum,” referring to a national AP African-American course rejected by the Florida Dept. of Education. She did not name the course she was referring to, leaving viewers to guess, and she did not explain the course was rejected because of left-wing propaganda which DeSantis himself has described in detail in recent weeks.
So the supposed apology for a blatant lie was followed up by more lies if omitting facts is considered lying, too.
Curtis Houck, of the Media Research Center, says Griffin was right when he called Mitchell’s question to Harris a “blatant lie” and not an accident.
It was “refreshing,” Houck adds, to see the DeSantis communications team quickly fight back and force a dishonest journalist to apologize, even if was a “mealy-mouth” apology.
