Christina Pushaw, press secretary to Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL), is the most effective Republican spokesman right now.
The Southern California native uses Twitter to disseminate her boss’ office updates and hit back at critics who deliberately peddle in misinformation. Her tweets often draw the ire of lefty journalists and Democratic activists. Why? They hate smart, impressive conservative women who do their jobs well. And that, in itself, points to her effectiveness.
Is Pushaw a bomb thrower solely desiring to “own the libs”? I don’t detect that from her. She’s tactful, thoughtful, stern, and—yes—very approachable to the press. Those are indications she’s serious and worthy of a Twitter follow.
Here’s why Republican lawmakers should hire more Christina Pushaws to lead their communications efforts.
Pushaw Faces Big Tech Censorship for Doing Her Job
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This past Friday, the Associated Press wasn’t happy with Ms. Pushaw’s takedown of their reporting that falsely tied Regeneron to Governor DeSantis donors, which Politifact ruled as “Mostly False.”
That prompted the AP to issue a bizarre rebuke of Governor DeSantis and Pushaw, writing, “We call on you to eliminate this attack strategy from your press office.”
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
“This is unacceptable behavior from a government employee, especially one whose job it is to work with the media and communicate with the public,” wrote the AP’s Daisy Veerasingham. “Journalists are regularly subjected to abuse, rape threats, people stalking their family members, and hacking their online personas. These actions can lead to violence and personal injury, and mental health consequences.”
Would they request this of a Democratic governor or their press secretary? Highly doubtful. They would shout, at least privately, “You go girl!” if Pushaw were a Democrat or leftist.
Shortly after the letter was published, Twitter suspended Pushaw for 12 hours for reportedly “harassing” the AP reporter despite no evidence pointing to such. Did AP collude with Twitter to restrict the DeSantis aide’s account? It appears so.
She tweeted, “Twitter suspended me after AP complained about pushback to their debunked hit piece about @GovRonDeSantis. This only proves Governor DeSantis right — again. Those who challenge false narratives are too often silenced by corporate media and Big Tech collusion.”
"No one from our office ever threatened him," she told Fox News. "His story drew harsh criticism because it was false - and discouraged people from seeking life-saving treatment. Instead of owning up to that and retracting their hit piece, AP doubled down and tried to make the story about the backlash the reporter received."
As Townhall’s Guy Benson noted, “The DeSantis spokeswoman didn't "harass" the journalist. She did her job, furnished him with pertinent facts, then blasted him when he wrote a non-news story with a garbage headline anyway.”
Washington Examiner’s Seth Mandel echoed Benson.
This is insane. They're just trying to stop Christina from pushing back. She pushed back on me the other day and I didn't write a letter to her boss. She's doing her job. https://t.co/nFAi9Vc1uq
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) August 20, 2021
Were Pushaw’s tweets protected by the First Amendment? Mark R. Weaver, former Ohio Deputy Attorney General, wrote, “PIOs and other govt comms pros — this includes @ChristinaPushaw — have the same First Amendment right to go online to critique stories in the news that reporters have to publish such stories.”
The First Amendment isn’t exclusive to American journalists. State employees like Pushaw should enjoy these protections as well.
Pushaw Worked for Anti-Putin Critic Saashivilli, Can Hit Back
Former Georgian President and Putin critic Mikheil Saakashvili praised his former employee back in June, saying of Pushaw: “You know Christina Pushaw has experience fighting disinformation in Georgia — and she’s doing the same thing in America now.”
In August, the USC graduate tweeted she’s not intimidated by Twitter trolls, adding, “None of the lefty Twitter dorks have thrown Molotov cocktails into my workplace, thankfully. But that did happen in Tbilisi.”
“My Sakaashvili story is interesting,” Pushaw told the Georgian Journal in 2017. “I was studying history, Russian history specifically, at university. It was in 2008, of course, that many of us really heard for the first time about Georgia, during the war. I was always Republican and volunteered for John McCain’s campaign as a student. When McCain said “today we are all Georgians”, I started to look into the country and its leader, and soon realized what he had done for his country: quite significant accomplishments compared to its neighboring countries, and I admired him for that.”
Republicans and conservatives working in communications can learn from Pushaw’s efforts combating Kremlin disinformation to help counter the MSM when needed.
Conclusion
If Republican lawmakers had more Christina Pushaws in their corner, they’d win the messaging war. Her approach should be emulated—and replicated—in offices across the country.
There’s a reason Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is growing more popular with Americans. Staffers like Pushaw add to his appeal too.
