Liberal 'Young Turks' host apologizes for repeatedly amplifying Democratic activist's lies: 'I screwed up royally'



Leftist script-reader Ana Kasparian of "The Young Turks" apologized Wednesday for parroting multiple false claims made by a disgraced critic of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

For having been fooled and in turn fooling her audience for years, Kasparian said, "I should've done my due diligence. I failed to do so. By failing to do so, I feel like I misled the audience into thinking that Rebekah Jones is some sort of hero."

What did she get wrong?

Rebekah Jones, the woman who lost a congressional race in a landslide to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) last year and who has up until recently enjoyed Kasparian's support, is a former Florida Department of Health data analyst who was fired for insubordination, having intentionally crashed the state's COVID dashboard.

Around the time of her dismissal, Jones accused the DeSantis administration of fudging its coronavirus data — a claim later determined to have been false by Florida Inspector General Michael J. Bennett.

"Based upon an analysis of the available evidence, the alleged conduct, as described by the complainant, did not occur," concluded the inspector's report.

Police later executed a search warrant on Jones' Tallahassee house after a data breach involving the theft of 19,000 employees' personal information was linked to the disgraced former data analyst's home IP address.

The National Review noted that while DeSantis had nothing to do with the warrant or its execution, Jones accused the governor of targeting her with his "gestapo." Furthermore, she suggested that police pointed weapons at her children, which bodycam footage later proved to have also been false.

Despite indications that Jones had a loose relationship with the truth, liberal media outlets, including Kasparian's, continued to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Last week, Jones' 13-year-old son was arrested after allegedly threatening to shoot up his school.

Officials in Santa Rosa county indicated that Jones' son had made threats online in February that he would shoot up Holley Navarre Middle School and stab students who angered him, reported the Pensacola News Journal.

According to investigators, the teen wrote:

  • "I want to shoot up the school";
  • "Okay so it’s been like 3-4 weeks since I got on my new antidepressants and they aren’t working but they’re suppose to by now so I have no hope in getting better so why not kill the losers at school";
  • "I’m getting a wrath and natural selection shirt so maybe but I don’t think many ppl know what the columbine shooters look like"; and
  • "If I get a gun I’m gonna shoot up hnms lol.:
These threats resulted in a digital threats of terrorism charge.
Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Jillian Durkin indicated that following a vacation to Mississippi, Jones turned her son in.

However, Jones later took to Twitter, claiming her son had been "taken on the gov's orders."

"There is no freedom here," wrote Jones. "Only retaliatory rule by a fascist who wishes to be king."

\u201cMy family is not safe. My son has been taken on the gov's orders, and I've had to send my husband and daughter out of state for their safety.\n\nTHIS is the reality of living in DeSantis' Florida.\n\nThere is no freedom here. Only retaliatory rule by a fascist who wishes to be king\u201d
— Rebekah Jones (@Rebekah Jones) 1680741734

Jones insinuated that her son's arrest was politically motivated and that he was targeted because his mother was "a legally-protected whistleblower."

The Democratic activist and failed congressional candidate also accused police of kidnapping her son.

Here is footage allegedly showing Jones waiting with her son at the sheriff's office:

\u201cVideo of the arrest after Rebekah Jones\u2019 son was caught threatening to shoot up a middle school\n\nhttps://t.co/9T6SbspQhQ\u201d
— Facts Nordau (@Facts Nordau) 1680882685

Partisan blindness

Kasparian admitted Wednesday that Jones' latest string of lies gave her pause, prompting her to re-evaluate the other claims she repeated on her show.

Not only did "The Young Turks" host call into doubt Jones' self-description as a whistleblower but the accusations she leveled in 2020 against DeSantis regarding COVID death numbers, the details pertaining to the alleged raid, and the arrest of her son as well.

"Part of the reason why I screwed up is because I had all these biases, of course, against Ron DeSantis," she added. "And I don’t really feel bad about that because I think Ron DeSantis has done some pretty terrible things in the state of Florida, but it becomes a problem when that bias blinds you to what the facts of various stories happen to be."

"We bought this. I bought this. We reported exactly what she said," said Kasparian. "And now I have some degree of regret for doing that."

While admitting some accountability, she suggested the "mainstream media" was especially deserving of blame.

"If they're not doing their due diligence, if they're allowing their personal biases to stand in the way of actual, factual reporting, well, that's unfortunately going to trickle into the way independent news sources cover these stories as well," said Kasparian.

In her apology, Kasparian said, "I want to correct all of those errors that we had previously reported. And I want to be clear that out of everyone who works on the main show, the only person who should be held responsible for that is me. I’m the executive producer of the show and I screwed up royally."

Mediaite reported that Kasparian and "The Young Turks" weren't alone in celebrating Jones and amplifying her lies. MSNBC, CNN, the Washington Post, and the Miami Herald also peddled her narrative.

TYT Correction: Update on Rebekah Jones Story youtu.be

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Disgraced Democrat operative's teen son arrested; allegedly threatened to 'shoot up' his former middle school



Failed Florida congressional candidate Rebekah Jones' teen son was charged with a second degree felony Wednesday after allegedly issuing threats online, the New York Post reported.

"I want to shoot up the school. If I get a gun I'm gonna shoot up hnms lol," Jones' 13-year-old son allegedly wrote on social media in posts or messages to friends, according to Pensacola News Journal.

HNMS is Holley Navarre Middle School, which the boy used to attend. He was home schooled at the time he made the alleged threats.

"Okay so it’s been like 3-4 weeks since I got on my new antidepressants and they aren’t working but they’re suppose to by now so I have no hope in getting better so why not kill the losers at school," he reportedly also wrote.

His plan was to launch the attack before spring break, but he reportedly postponed it until March 31.

Friends of the boy alerted authorities, and Jones turned her son in to the Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office where a judge determined there was probable cause in the case.

In a Wednesday tweet, Jones appeared to blame Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), saying her son was taken "on government orders" and and that the state is ruled "by a fascist who wishes to be king."

\u201cMy family is not safe. My son has been taken on the gov's orders, and I've had to send my husband and daughter out of state for their safety.\n\nTHIS is the reality of living in DeSantis' Florida.\n\nThere is no freedom here. Only retaliatory rule by a fascist who wishes to be king\u201d
— Rebekah Jones (@Rebekah Jones) 1680741734
The Miami Herald changed a grievously misleading headline after severe backlash on social media. Andres Malave pointed out the change in a twitter post Thursday afternoon. Malave is the Director of Communications for Florida's GOP House of Representatives.

The initial headline said, "13-year-old son of Rebekah Jones, whistleblower who clashed with DeSantis, arrested over memes."

The headline was later changed to say "Son of Rebekah Jones, Florida whistleblower, arrested in probe of threatening Internet posts."

\u201c.@MiamiHerald changes headline \ncc: @RAlexAndradeFL\u201d
— Andres Malave (@Andres Malave) 1680812653

Rebekah Jones is a former employee of the state of Florida who made headlines during the pandemic when she claimed she was fired for refusing to lie about COVID statistics. A state inspector general concluded her claims were baseless, as TheBlaze reported

Jones posted multiple videos of her son's arrest. One shows the boy apparently being handcuffed by a female police officer in a parking lot. Another video, taken indoors, shows her handcuffed son being walked toward a set of doors by a person who appears to be the same officer.

Saturday evening, Jones posted an article on Substack saying her son was "both terrorized and ignored by authorities who are supposed to protect him" for three years.

In the article, she also accused Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a political rival who beat her in a race for the seat, of "mocking [her] 12-year-old autistic child." She also accused an unnamed person in Gaetz's office of allegedly "stalking" the boy.
Jones' son is slated for arraignment May 3. Until then, he is reportedly on home detention with a monitor, and is prohibited from possessing firearms, using the internet, and contacting anyone from the school.

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Florida Gov. DeSantis defends agents who served search warrant on home of fired data analyst ​Rebekah Jones



Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) came out swinging on Friday in defense of the state police officers who served a search warrant on the home of one of his administration's former employees earlier in the week.

What are the details?

On Monday, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement served a search warrant on the home of Rebekah Jones, who was fired in May from her position as a data analyst for the Florida Department of Health. The DeSantis administration said she was let go for insubordination, and that she altered the state's coronavirus dashboard without authorization.

Jones claims the state has been misleading the public about its COVID-19 numbers, and now publishes her own independent data from her home.

When police arrived at Jones' house, she set up a camera to record what happened, and posted footage online showing officers entering her residence and walking through a hallway calling for Jones' husband to come downstairs with guns drawn in what's widely been reported as a "raid."

Ms. Jones claims agents "pointed a gun in [her] face" and "pointed guns at [her] kids." The footage does not show Jones' children or her husband. She hit out at DeSantis afterward, saying he "sent the gestapo" to get her to "shut up."

1/There will be no update today. At 8:30 am this morning, state police came into my house and took all my hardwa… https://t.co/GXDz5hd6Wh
— Rebekah Jones (@Rebekah Jones)1607377881.0

The FDLA confirmed serving the warrant, saying that they had been investigating a complaint from the Health Department that someone had "illegally hacked into their emergency alert system." The law enforcement agency denied that weapons were pointed at anyone in the home.

During a press conference Friday, a reporter asked DeSantis whether he knew "about the Rebekah Jones raid before it happened."

The governor said he "knew there was an investigation," but took offense to the reporter's use of the term "raid" to describe the incident where officers seized property from Jones' home.

"It's not a raid," DeSantis insisted, saying, "With all due respect, what you just said is editorializing," and he told the reporter, "I'm not going to let you get away with it."

"These people did their jobs," he continued. "They've been smeared as the gestapo for doing their jobs. They did a search warrant."

"Why did they do a search warrant on the house? Because her IP address was linked to the felony," DeSantis explained. "What were they supposed to do? Just ignore it? Of course not. They went, they followed protocol, we actually have video from the Tallahassee PD showing that they were very respectful. She was not cooperative."

"It was not a raid," DeSantis reiterated. "They were serving valid process in accordance with the laws and Constitution of the United States and the state of Florida. They did it with integrity, they did it with honor, and to say it's a raid is disinformation."

#WATCH: Gov. DeSantis spars with reporter over Rebekah Jones investigation, question about FDLE 'raid'… https://t.co/gG1jgTNI8t
— WPTV (@WPTV)1607711440.0

Cops raid home of fired Florida data analyst Rebekah Jones who accused state of misleading citizens on COVID



Florida state police raided the home of a former data analyst for the Florida Department of Health on Friday, who claims Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) "sent the gestapo" to get her to "shut up."

Rebekah Jones was fired from her position in the DeSantis administration in May for allegedly modifying the state's COVID-19 dashboard unilaterally without authorization. She claims the state was misleading citizens on the coronavirus numbers, and now she runs her own COVID-19 tracking sites from her house.

What are the details?

Jones tweeted Friday that state police served a warrant at her home that morning and seized property, claiming that officers "pointed a gun in [her] face" and "pointed guns at [her] kids."

She posted accompanying video showing the purported scene from inside her home as police entered. Armed officers can be seen walking through the hallway, and pointing their firearms upward as they called for Jones' husband to come down the stairs. Neither Jones' husband nor the couples' children are seen in the footage.

1/There will be no update today. At 8:30 am this morning, state police came into my house and took all my hardwa… https://t.co/GXDz5hd6Wh
— Rebekah Jones (@Rebekah Jones)1607377881.0

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed in a statement that they served a warrant on Rebekah Jones' residence, saying that they had been investigating a complaint from the Florida Department of Health that someone had "illegally hacked into their emergency alert system."

The FDLE said that their agents determined Jones' home "was the location that the unauthorized message was sent from."

The FDLE added:

Agents knocked and called Ms. Jones both announcing the search warrant and encouraging her to cooperate. Ms. Jones refused to come to the door for 20 minutes and hung-up on agents. After several attempts, Ms. Jones allowed agents inside. Agents entered the home in accordance with normal protocols and seized several devices that will be forensically analyzed. At no time were weapons pointed at anyone in the home. Any evidence will be referred to the State Attorney for prosecution as appropriate.

Miami Herald reporter Jeff Butera obtained the search warrant for Jones' residence, indicating that on Oct. 10, an "unknown user gained access and sent this message to approx 1,750 people: 'it's time to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead. You know this is wrong. You don't have to be a part of this. Be a hero. Speak out before it's too late.'"

What did Rebekah Jones say?

Jones said on Twitter of the raid, "They took my phone and the computer I use every day to post the case numbers in Florida, and school cases for the entire country. They took evidence of corruption at the state level. They claimed it was about a security breach. This was DeSantis. He sent the gestapo."

She added later, "If Desantis thought pointing a gun in my face was a good way to get me to shut up, he's about to learn just how wrong he was. I'll have a new computer tomorrow. And then I'm going to get back to work."

The Herald reported:

In July, [Jones] filed a confidential whistle-blower complaint with the Florida Commission on Human Relations, which she said is expected to release its findings soon.She also wrote in an op-ed in the Miami Herald in July that other state workers were being silenced for expressing their concerns about the state's handling of the coronavirus and its data collection.