Former Biden and Obama White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki sparked controversy online after suggesting that part of the reason that Latinos tend to vote Republican in Florida has to do with disinformation being spread in Spanish-language media.
“The Latino vote is not the same everywhere! There are huge generational differences and in Florida population of older voters (more likely [Republicans]) much larger than younger. Socialism does not play there. And there is a massive disinformation problem in Spanish language media,” Psaki tweeted, in response to the mini-red wave achieved by the GOP in the Sunshine State.
Incumbent Florida Governor Ron DeSantis handily won his race for reelection on Tuesday, taking 59.4 percent of the vote. In the Senate, Republican Marco Rubio survived his election challenge by a margin of 57.7 percent to 41.3 percent by Democratic challenger Val Demings. In the House, the GOP picked up 20 of the state’s 28 seats, with the president’s party picking up the remaining eight.
Psaki’s comments sparked a backlash from both senior Republican officials and their supporters.
“Democrats are in denial,” Republican Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said, weighing in on the remarks comments. “They’re in denial because they first tried to brand all Hispanics as LatinX. That didn’t work. That sort of monolithic brand didn’t stick. People don’t like it.” Suarez suggested Republican gains among Hispanics are related to effective communication with voters, not disinformation.
Rubio mocked the former spokeswoman online, retweeting Psaki’s post and writing he would “pray” that Democrats "will keep following the advice of people like this lady.”
Ordinary users also chimed in. “This is a very white perspective. Latinos are not all the same. There are multiple countries even with local difference in culture, let alone nationality. As long as you place them all in the same bag you’ll keep losing them,” one person wrote. “The Latino vote is the American vote. Stop treating these Americans differently,” another recommended. “Oh, you mean the new conservative based Spanish speaking media? You have something against Hispanic owned businesses? Bigot,” a third wrote.
Others mocked the spokeswoman, who is now an MSNBC contributor, over the “disinformation” claims.
A few people did come to Psaki’s defense, however. “There’s something sinister (corrupt) in Florida politics that has historic roots. The South Florida Cuban population has been infiltrated to the point of toxicity and its unwavering devotion to the Republican Party is utterly against the best interest of the people,” one user wrote.
The Biden administration was forced to shutter its ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ this summer after a massive backlash from free speech advocates, including Republicans and conservatives, but also libertarians and progressives. The advisory board, created in April, was designed to combat ‘disinformation’ online, i.e. narratives which the Biden administration, the US security state or Washington’s foreign policy elites happened to disagree with. Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas closed down the DGB on August 24 amid the backlash.