Fake News CNN runs ‘special report’ on 2020 dinner and hug shared by Ron Desantis and Clarence Thomas

CNN’s Kate Bolduan and CNN Senior Supreme Court Analyst Joan Biskupic teamed up for a segment Tuesday about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and the influential powerbroker that connects them.

The segment, designed as a tie-in to a story published by Biskupic, was preceded by tape of DeSantis introducing Thomas as the Court’s “greatest living justice” at a Federalist Society event in Florida three years ago before hugging Thomas as he handed over his podium. Bolduan explained that DeSantis and Thomas’s relationship had been facilitated by Leonard Leo, an influential conservative legal expert and advisor.

“And after that speech, DeSantis, Thomas, and Leo all went to dinner,” explained Bolduan.

Leo is perhaps best known for his work for the Federalist Society, an influential legal organization comprised mostly of originalist and textualist thinkers, where he serves as co-chairman. But he also runs or advises a number of other conservative nonprofits in addition to the work he does for two firms, CRC Advisors and BH Group.

Last year, Leo secured a $1.6 billion donation for his network from a conservative donor, and he is known to have played a pivotal role in helping former president Donald Trump select his nominees to the Supreme Court.

“Didn’t you like that big bear hug at the end there?” asked Biskupic upon being introduced by Bolduan. Then CNN’s senior Supreme Court analyst delved headfirst into pontificating on what that embrace symbolized:

That event was part of the roots of this very tight relationship between Ron DeSantis, Leonard Leo, and Clarence Thomas. All have many things in common and they all focus on the judiciary. And Ron DeSantis now as a candidate is taking a page from the Donald Trump playbook and running on the Supreme Court, and he’s doing it in part by holding up Clarence Thomas as a model, and interestingly, part of the playbook that Trump had involved using Leonard Leo to advise him on his choices for the Supreme Court. He effectively sought out three very conservative, anti-abortion justices and Leonard Leo has also advised Ron DeSantis in his role as governor of Florida as he’s chosen his nominees for the Florida Supreme Court. So you’re right, Leonard Leo’s kind of in the center of all that.

And Leonard Leo has not said who he’s going to support in this sprawling primary we have going on the GOP side right now, but he has long advised Governor DeSantis and since he admires his approach to the judiciary and on that got Clarence Thomas’s approach to the law — anti-LGBTQ, anti-abortion, anti-press — mirrors what Ron DeSantis has done in the state down in Florida.