Propagandist DeSantis press secretary belatedly registers as foreign agent
June 8, 2022
Today, news broke by The Washington Post that Governor Ron DeSantis' press secretary, Christina Pushaw, has belatedly registered as a foreign agent for past work on behalf of the former President of Georgia, Miikheil Saakashvili. Georgia is a prior Soviet Union country that is now independent, to Russia's dismay. Pushaw received payments in 2018–2020 that she failed to report, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) of 1938 that was passed by Congress in the lead-up to World War II.
This has the makings of a major scandal, as Pushaw's filing was made only recently after she was contacted by the United States Department of Justice in regards to her noncompliance with the law. This has similarities to billionaire DeSantis supporter Steve Wynn being compelled in May 2022 to register as a foreign agent of mainland China, and of course the many scandals of the Trump presidency and people in Trump's inner circle.
Christina Pushaw operates not under DeSantis' campaign wing, but rather directly within the Office of the Governor as Press Secretary, receiving a taxpayer-funded salary of over $100,000 per year. However, DeSantis hired her mainly for her work with right-wing trolling on Twitter and attacking alleged COVID-19 whistleblower Rebekah Jones. As the official press secretary of the head of Florida's executive branch of government, Pushaw posts and promotes right-wing propaganda on Twitter while bullying and threatening people.
For example, several months ago when neo-Nazis rallied in Orlando, Pushaw had the audacity to purport that they were Democrats in disguise. In the summer of 2021, she was suspended from Twitter for 12 hours for threatening a reporter from the Associated Press for writing a story about DeSantis' biggest campaign contributor being invested in the Regeneron COVID-19 treatment the DeSantis administration was aggressively promoting. The editorial board of The Orlando Sentinel writes: "She warned the reporter that if he didn’t retract it, she would 'put you on blast' and retweeted: 'Light. Them. Up.' AP said the reporter was a target of threats and stood by its story."
There are so many other outrageous things that Pushaw has done that I suggest reading more in today's Notes, below. She has no business being Florida's gubernatorial press secretary, like so many of DeSantis' executive appointees.
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