A 'joke': Ron DeSantis denies Roberto Clemente book pulled from school shelves

Governor Ron DeSantis on Tuesday appeared to be unaware that for over a week, multiple nationwide and local news outlets have been reporting on Duval County pulling a book about baseball great Roberto Clemente from all its school shelves in response to the Florida Republican's laws, which he claims are designed to protect parents and children.

The far-right Florida governor lashed out in response to a reporter asking him about the Roberto Clemente book, first blaming "politics," then "teachers' unions," then claiming the story itself was "a joke" and "manufactured" while never accepting the impact the legislation he has supported, promoted, signed into law, and used to brand himself as a protector of children has had a devastating effect on those very children he claims to want to protect.

"That's politics though, to be honest, come on," DeSantos complained on Tuesday at a Jacksonville press conference. "We know. 'Roberto Clemente'? I mean, seriously. That's politics. I think the school unions are involved with this."

Rather than direct his Secretary of Education to look into the situation, DeSantis told reporters to file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to learn more about school districts and administrators removing books from classroom and library shelves.

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"I mean, you guys can FOIA some of these communications. I guarantee you'll find some of that with the people that are doing it. So that's a joke. Okay?" DeSantis falsely claimed.

"I think they're doing it unilaterally to try to create an issue. But that can be resolved in about two minutes to be able to do that and our Department of Education will be working, you know, very quickly if they need any type of advice on that but none of these things – 99% of this stuff is just is manufactured."

DeSantis, who is expected to announce a run for president, appeared wholly ignorant of what's going on in Florida schools.

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"More than 1 million books in Duval County schools in Florida are subject to review due to three state laws impacting certain subjects in education, including race, gender and sexual orientation," ABC News reports, confirming the Roberto Clemente book was pulled from school shelves, citing communication from county officials.

"As required by state law, we are in the process of having certified media specialists review all classroom library books," Tracy Pierce, chief of marketing and public relations at Duval County Public Schools, told ABC News. "There are approximately 1.6 million titles in our classroom and media center libraries that need to be reviewed by a certified media specialist."

ABC News adds the state laws cited include DeSantis' Stop WOKE Act and the Parental Rights in Education law, better known as the "Don’t Say Gay" law.

Watch DeSantis below or at this link.