Example: Last month, Politico published a hit piece headlined “Scarred DeSantis staffers form a support group,” alleging, “We talked to a dozen or so onetime aides and consultants to the Florida governor, and they all said the same thing: DeSantis treats staff like expendable widgets.” But the main thrust seemed to be that consultants and operatives were upset that he hasn’t hired or listened to enough consultants and operatives. And unlike Politico’s unnamed sources, many former DeSantis staffers went on the record to push back. Example: In mid-April, MSNBC’s Joy Reid and legal analyst Glenn Kirschner claimed that DeSantis must feel “like things are creeping closer and closer to him” in the sex-trafficking investigation of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), and that to avoid jail time, Gaetz will have “to give up somebody bigger than him.” Kirschner added, “We’ve seen the pictures. We’ve heard the stories.” The entire basis of this tinfoil-hat theory of DeSantis being implicated in a sex scandal is that Gaetz was on a 2018 trip to the Bahamas with a guy who raised money for DeSantis. Example: In April, a “60 Minutes” story claiming that DeSantis had given a COVID-19 vaccine deal to Publix supermarkets in exchange for campaign donations blew up in the face of CBS News. Local TV captured the questioning of DeSantis by the “60 Minutes” reporter, exposing that CBS had deceptively ­edited out his detailed explanation — backed up by state and ­local officials — of why Publix was chosen to help vaccinate Florida seniors.