Casey DeSantis hits back at reports calling her 'Walmart Melania': 'I do shop at Walmart'
- An opinion piece published by The Daily Beast referred to Casey DeSantis as "the Walmart Melania."
- In a "Fox & Friends" interview on Thursday, Florida's first lady brushed off the criticism.
Casey DeSantis responded to reports calling her "the Walmart Melania" and "America's Karen" in a joint interview with her husband, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, that aired Thursday on "Fox & Friends."
On June 4, The Daily Beast published an opinion piece by Katie Baker titled "Casey DeSantis Is the Walmart Melania" after she wore a leather jacket embroidered with "Where woke goes to die" to a campaign event, comparing it to Melania Trump's infamous "I really don't care, do U?" jacket in 2018.
Then, on July 8, during an appearance on "The Saturday Show with Jonathan Capehart," MSNBC analyst and former GOP Florida Rep. David Jolly said that while some view Casey as "the brighter side to Florida's angry governor," others view her as "America's Karen."
In Thursday's interview, "Fox & Friends" host Ainsley Earhardt asked Casey how she deals with the criticism.
"One thing that the corporate media did get right about me, I do shop at Walmart," Casey DeSantis said. "I think it's interesting, and you probably can sympathize with this, when they come after you and they're just calling you names. That means they don't want to litigate the merits of their case. They don't want to have that conversation. They want to call you names. They want to try to get you to back down, but I can tell you the No. 1 thing, we will not back down when it comes to our family."
Casey has appeared to wear outfits inspired by former first ladies at public appearances. She wore a mint-green Alex Perry cape dress to DeSantis' 2023 inauguration reminiscent of the silhouette Melania Trump often wore, and a pink satin gown to DeSantis' State of the State address similar to a Dior outfit Jackie Kennedy wore in 1962.
In the "Fox & Friends" interview, Casey also discussed her 2021 breast-cancer diagnosis and treatment, saying that she and DeSantis didn't tell their young children that she had cancer, and still haven't told them now that she's in remission.