ANNALS OF DeSANTISTAN: DeSantis Was Directly Behind Ominous Threats To TV Channels Over Pro-Choice Ads, Former Official Says. (Alanna Vagianos, Huffington Post, October 21, 2024)

Is our former Congressman, now our bullying Boy Governor, RONALD DION DeSANTIS,  aka "RON DeSANCTIMONIOUS" is a tedious tawdry termagant, practicing election interference?  You tell me.  From Huffington Post:

DeSantis Was Directly Behind Ominous Threats To TV Channels Over Pro-Choice Ads, Former Official Says

New court records shed light on the governor’s threats to TV stations for airing pro-choice political advertisements.

By Alanna Vagianos

Oct 21, 2024, 03:22 PM EDT

The general counsel for Florida’s Department of Health, John Wilson, resigned earlier this month — and new court records show it was because he was uncomfortable sending threats on behalf of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to TV stations for airing pro-choice political advertisements.

A sworn affidavit from Wilson revealed on Monday that DeSantis deputies personally wrote the threats to news channels and directed Wilson to send them out under his name. Wilson said he received the drafted cease-and-desist letters the morning of Oct. 3, 2024, and that he signed and sent them out later that day.

“I did not draft the letters or participate in any discussions about the letters prior to October 3, 2024,” Wilson wrote. He resigned a week later “in lieu of complying with directives from [DeSantis’ attorneys] to send out further correspondence to the media outlets, similar to the October 3, 2024, letters,” he wrote in the affidavit. Wilson wrote that DeSantis’ general counsel and deputy general counsel directed him to send the letters in his name. (Scroll all the way down to read Wilson’s full affidavit.) 

Wilson hinted when he resigned that the threats to TV stations were part of his decision. “A man is nothing without his conscience. It has become clear in recent days that I cannot join you on the road that lies before this Agency,” he wrote in his resignation letter.

Wilson’s statement is the first evidence that directly links DeSantis’ office to the attacks on the state’s pro-choice ballot initiative. The administration has been using taxpayer dollars to wage an all-out war against the state’s pro-choice measure, and state officials have spread misinformation about Amendment 4, which would repeal the governor’s six-week abortion ban and restore access to fetal viability. Until this point, however, the attacks have been made through DeSantis surrogates, many appointed as top administration officials. 

“These current stories all look past the core issue — the ads are unequivocally false and put the lives and health of pregnant women at risk — Florida’s heartbeat protection law always protects the life of a mother and includes exceptions for victims of rape, incest, and human trafficking,” Julia Friedland, deputy press secretary for DeSantis, told HuffPost.

Florida’s Department of Health did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment. 

The sworn affidavit from the former general counsel of Florida's Department of Health is the first evidence that directly links Ron DeSantis’ office to the attacks on the state’s pro-choice ballot initiative.

VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

The cease-and-desist letter Wilson signed and sent to multiple local news channels threatened to bring criminal charges against outlets that aired an ad in support of the abortion rights measure. Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group behind the amendment, sued the Health Department in response, naming Joseph Ladapo, the state’s surgeon general and head of the department, as well as Wilson. 

Wilson’s affidavit was filed as part of the ongoing federal lawsuit against Wilson and Ladapo. Floridians Protecting Freedom filed the suit last week, accusing the Health Department of political censorship. The federal court issued a temporary restraining ordershortly after that bars Florida officials from threatening TV stations for running pro-Amendment 4 ads. 

“To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid,” the judge wrotein the order.

The letter signed and sent out by Wilson claimed that the ad, created by the Yes On 4 campaign, violated the state’s so-called “sanitary nuisance” law. The claim is a stretch because the sanitary nuisance law is meant to curb conditions that can threaten or impair Floridians’ health, normally reserved for issues such as overflowing septic tanks.

The letter attempted to apply the law to a 30-second ad in which a Tampa mother talks about being diagnosed with brain cancer while pregnant. The mother, Caroline, got a lifesaving abortion in 2020 after her diagnosis, but she believes she would not have been able to get one today under the state’s six-week abortion ban.

Wilson’s letter, which he now says was written by DeSantis’ attorneys, claimed that the ad was “false” and “dangerous” because Florida’s ban includes an exception for the life and health of the mother. In reality, the law does not offer specifics on how sick or near death a pregnant person needs to be in order to qualify for a lifesaving abortion. This lack of clarity has led to physicians delaying lifesaving care in fear of criminal punishments. Several Florida women have nearly bled out and died due to confusion around the abortion ban’s health- and lifesaving exception. It’s particularly unclear if and when the exception would apply to cancer patients like Caroline.

Amendment 4 will be in front of Florida voters on Election Day, and needs 60% of the vote to pass.

Read Wilson’s sworn affidavit below.