For years, Fox & Friends was the show that shamelessly carried water for former President Donald Trump while offering him a friendly forum to push his agenda. With the twice-impeached ex-president now residing in Mar-a-Lago, it looks like Fox News’ flagship morning show has rallied around its new shining star.
Amid the right-wing media ecosphere launching a full-scale moral panic against Disney for “pushing [an] LGBT agenda” and “grooming” children, the Fox & Friends crew welcomed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and singer-songwriters Johnny and Donnie Van Zant to the show on Friday to rage against the Mouse House and “exclusively” debut a new pro-DeSantis song.
Prior to giving DeSantis the opportunity to launch into a tirade against Disney for opposing Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay bill, the program aired a portion of the Van Zant brothers’ ode to the MAGA governor. Naturally, considering the song had the express approval of DeSantis himself and featured him throughout the video, the lyrics of “Sweet Florida” are beyond over-the-top in praising the governor.
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“He’s fighting for the right to keep our state free/Well, he’s taking on the swamp and he’s calling out Dr. Fauci—Fauci/He’s the only one fighting for you and me!” Johnny Van Zant sings at one point in the tune.
“So cool,” co-host Ainsley Earhardt exclaimed, while her colleague Brian Kilmeade reacted: “It’s an excellent song … it’s fantastic!”
After gushing over the song for a short while with the Van Zants, brothers of deceased Lynyrd Skynyrd legend Ronnie Van Zant, the hosts turned to DeSantis to rage against Disney and warn the entertainment giant that he will use Florida’s laws to retaliate against it for crossing him.
“They’ve gotten incredible treatment from the Florida legislature and they are treated on a pedestal, this one corporation is treated differently than everybody else. That’s not something I’ve ever supported,” he seethed. “But now in the legislature, you see a movement to reevaluate those special privileges. And so at the end of the day, I think Disney has gotten over its skis on this.”
Referencing a leaked video of Disney executives expressing their support for the LGBTQ community—something that Fox News and right-wing media have absolutely melted down over—the governor then claimed the company was killing America.
“There’s policy disputes and that’s fine, but when you’re trying to impose a woke ideology on our state, we view that as a significant threat,” DeSantis declared. “This wokeness will destroy this country if we let it run unabated. So in Florida, we take a very big stand against that.”
Following DeSantis’ anti-Disney rant, the show’s hosts turned back to the Van Zant’s jingle.
“And we all were shocked when we saw the video. We didn’t know the governor was going to be in it! Let’s play a little bit of the song for our audience,” Earhardt excitedly stated before airing another clip of the song.
“The press don’t like him, but it sure does get my business/ He stands up for what he believes/ So don’t come down here trying to change things/ We're doing all right in the Sunshine State,” Johnny Van Zant croons throughout. “Stay out of our business, leave our governor alone/ Down in sweet Florida/ Our governor is red, white, and blue/ Down in sweet Florida/ He’s shooting us straight and telling us the truth!”
After the video ended, co-host Steve Doocy wondered whether DeSantis sang along with the Van Zant brothers, prompting them to confirm he did while gleefully adding: “He looked good in there singing.”
DeSantis, meanwhile, said he thought they would merely “tweak an old song” after he recommended they do something along the lines of “Sweet Home Alabama,” a Lynyrd Skynyrd classic.
“It is a catchy song, you know when a song is good because if you start singing along to it and you get it, you know and I can tell you, after I was in there in the studio, I’m leaving and…it plays in your head,” he added. “I played it today for my wife and kids and my 5-year-old daughter sings it, that is how you know you have a winner on your hands.”
The Fox & Friends crew then ended the segment by telling their viewers where they could download the song.
