JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been center stage in a nationwide debate over mask-wearing as the cases of COVID-19 continue to surge both in Florida and nationwide.
DeSantis notably signed an executive order barring school districts in Florida from requiring students at public schools to wear masks. The executive order sparked criticism from President Joe Biden among others.
Recently, a controversial picture of DeSantis holding up a t-shirt bashing mask-wearing has appeared on social media. But is the picture legitimate?
THE CLAIM: A picture of Governor Ron DeSantis circulating claims he is holding a shirt stating: "Your mask is as useless as Joe Biden," is gaining thousands of retweets and shares on Facebook.
We can verify that the image is false.
SOURCE: Governor Ron Desantis’ official Twitter page
If you take this picture and do a reverse image search on Google Images, you’re going to find a very similar picture posted on Governor DeSantis’ Twitter page in 2019. It shows him wearing the same outfit, same pose and same surroundings. The only difference is the graphic on the t-shirt.
The governor tweeted the real picture in a 2019 tweet after visiting Popeyes and Burger King headquarters. The graphic on the real picture reads "I went to Popeyes for the new chicken sandwich and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."
The governor’s political committee, Friends of Ron DeSantis, does sell t-shirts and merchandise, but nothing with the altered picture’s graphic or slogan on it.
For these reasons, we are going to verify these posts with the altered image as false.