Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Chaya Raichik, who runs the X account Libs of TikTok, usually see eye to eye on policy: Both support Florida’s anti-LGBTQ legislation and other far-right issues. But lately, the DeSantis administration has spoken out against Raichik’s viral posts, criticizing and fact-checking her.
Raichik, who has grown immensely popular with her critique of the LGBTQ community, has been connected to tens of bomb threats and accused of running harassment campaigns.
In a post on Sunday, Raichik shared a video of a Florida high schooler being attacked by one of her peers while at school. Raichik claimed that the student who beat the girl didn’t face any consequences—and the school is trying to cover it up.
“The school’s response was telling the 2 students they couldn’t talk to each other,” Raichik wrote, most likely sharing the video because the assailant she was claiming wasn’t disciplined was Black. “They reportedly failed to inform the teachers and have been trying to shove this under the rug.”
About 24 hours after it was posted, Raichik’s tweet was debunked by DeSantis’ team.
His former campaign rapid response director Christina Pushaw said, “you cannot just believe everything you read on the internet.”
And Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis’ press secretary, called Raichik’s words a lie.
“Another lie about Florida from LoTT. This incident happened months ago. The offender was disciplined and subsequently removed from the school,” Redfern tweeted. “A lesson could’ve been learned when @GovRonDeSantis called out the previous lie, but I guess clicks are more important than truth.”
The “previous lie” that DeSantis called attention to was when Raichik claimed Florida issues driver’s licenses to undocumented people last month. DeSantis himself reposted her tweet and called it a lie, too.
“Truth shouldn’t be a casualty of attempts to generate clicks and engagement farm,” DeSantis tweeted about Raichik.
At the time, Raichik tweeted that she was disappointed in DeSantis for correcting her via a “personal attack.”
This time around, Raichik simply posted another tweet about the situation. She said she confirmed with the Florida State Board of Education that the perpetrating student was suspended and remarked that the victim’s mother might choose to send her daughter to a new school. Notably, Raichik applauded DeSantis for the state’s school vouchers program, which allows families who enroll their kids in private schools to receive a financial voucher to use toward tuition.
“This story shows the importance of school choice vouchers which DeSantis has passed in Florida,” Raichik wrote.
Her second tweet even got an endorsement from Pushaw.
“Thanks for providing this update that includes important clarifications!” Pushaw tweeted at Raichik. “We welcome journalists & content creators to reach out to our office to get whatever information we can provide about something happening in Florida, to ensure that everything they share is accurate and they have the full story.”
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