Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Claims His State Isn’t Banning Books, Blames Activists For ‘Excesses’ On Law He Championed

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) tried to quash the narrative that his state bans books and tried to reframe the debate, claiming he is granting parents and school systems the power to remove obscene material from school libraries and classrooms even though hundreds of titles have been removed from school libraries under a law that he pushed.

On the Florida Governor website, a post titled, “Governor Ron DeSantis Debunks Book Ban Hoax, Calls on Florida Legislature to Amend the Law to Prevent Abuse from Activists” included surprising comments from DeSantis.  

“We also know that some people have abused this process in an effort to score cheap political points,” the governor said. “Today, I am calling on the Legislature to make necessary adjustments so that we can prevent abuses in the objection process and ensure that districts aren’t overwhelmed by frivolous challenges.”

DeSantis plans to take appropriate action to ensure that “book ban” legislation is not as extreme as it has appeared to critics. One of the biggest factors of this is to ensure that people do not politicize book review, but rather rely on parental opinion to guarantee that only truly adult books are banned.

DeSantis ordered “the Department of Education to take the appropriate action to prohibit bad actors in school leadership positions,” the post noted.

Recently, DeSantis dropped out of the presidential race after losing to Donald Trump in the Iowa caucus by 30 points. This leaves Trump and Nikki Haley as the only remaining Republican presidential candidates.

While DeSantis has been a major figure in right-wing politics and endorsed Trump, he recently stated that he will veto a bill that would make Florida taxpayers pay Trump’s legal fees.

This is not the first time DeSantis has spoken out against Trump. Back in January of 2023, DeSantis called out Trump for gaslighting about his Covid-19 policies.