In a late-night rant on Twitter, President Donald Trump went after several news networks, upset that they used their platforms to push fake news. Then the president tweeted false information from a far-right talking head.
Trump made the abstract claim that NBC, MSNBC, and CNN were again being dishonest, and followed it up by retweeting Talking Points USA President Charlie Kirk. In a tweet, Kirk said that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel for his actions before and after the Parkland shooting. This is not true.
Israel has drawn the ire of conservatives ever since the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, which killed 17. They say Israel neglected warning signs that Nikolas Cruz was dangerous and unstable.
“DeSantis suspends the horrible Sheriff Scott Israel who is largely responsible for the errors leading up to Parkland Shooting,” Kirk tweeted this week.
Governor Ron DeSantis suspends the horrible Sheriff Scott Israel who is largely responsible for the errors leading up to Parkland Shooting
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) January 8, 2019
A man of action, on his first day going after the cowards of Broward!
Kirk’s tweet came after a Miami Herald report saying Israel was telling his subordinates he expected to be suspended by DeSantis.
However, the claim turned out to be false. A report by Fox News said DeSantis had not suspended Israel.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office on Tuesday denied that the governor officially suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, following reports of the sheriff’s imminent removal.
A spokesperson for DeSantis told Fox News that no one from the governor’s team has had any contact with Israel or his attorneys and have not communicated to him that he’ll soon be suspended.
By the time Trump retweeted the claim, it had already been debunked.
Kirk, however, stood by his claim, saying he was tweeting based off reports he saw. In a message to the Daily Dot, he stood by it, saying “Desantis still plans to remove [Israel].”