Ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ expected announcement of his 2024 presidential campaign during an interview with Twitter CEO Elon Musk, a Vanity Fair correspondent compared Musk to avowed White supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
The story, published Tuesday and headlined “Report: Ron DeSantis Will Formally Announce His 2024 Bid With Elon Musk, Because Apparently David Duke Wasn’t Available,” claimed that Musk was a racist and has “done terrible things.”
Vanity Fair correspondent Bess Levin wrote that Musk “has turned Twitter into a safe haven for hate speech” and “made remarks about George Soros that the Anti-Defamation League said would ‘embolden extremists.’”
TRUMP CAMPAIGN MOCKS DESANTIS’ EXPECTED TWITTER PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCEMENT
Vanity Fair and Levin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
DeSantis is expected to announce his 2024 presidential campaign during an event Wednesday night with Musk on Twitter. Levin continued to compare Musk to Duke, writing that for the governor, “apparently other neo-Nazi sympathizers weren’t available.”
Levin also cited NBC News’ analysis on the alliance between DeSantis and Musk, concluding that “aligning with Musk and his 140 million followers could give the Florida governor a ‘significant boost.'”
Political commentators, authors and business leaders spoke out against comparing Musk with Duke.
“The media has lost its mind,” venture capital founder David Sacks wrote in a viral tweet with over 17,9000 likes on Twitter.
“Looks like Babylon Bee has some competition for satire,” Musk said in response to the headline. The Babylon Bee is a conservative leaning satire and comedy site.
“If someone really sees David Duke and Elon Musk as comparable in some way, they’re either crazy or incredibly ignorant. Either way, they certainly don’t deserve to be writing for any sort of credible publication……or even somewhere like Vanity Fair,” author John Hawkins wrote.
DESANTIS SAYS HE IS ONE OF ONLY THREE ‘CREDIBLE’ 2024 OPTIONS, CHANCES FOR TRUMP ‘NOT GREAT’: REPORT
Once he announces, DeSantis will join an increasingly crowded Republican field that includes Trump, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, conservative radio host Larry Elder, GOP Sen. Tim Scott and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Fox News’ Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.
