This past weekend, Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio, both of whom are up for reelection this fall, headlined the Republican Party of Florida’s annual Sunshine Summit. Other high-profile Florida Republicans were also in attendance at the Hardrock Hotel & Casino event, which this year tried something new: after seven years of being open to the press, “it limited which media could attend, giving inside-the-room access to right-wing outlets that give the governor positive coverage,” Politico reports, adding that traditional GOP figures were “largely replaced by the conservative social media influencers with massive followings who have recently moved to Florida and become some of DeSantis’ most vocal backers.”

Many local and national mainstream outlets were unable to get press credentials, according to the Tallahassee Democrat, including the Miami Herald, Politico, Florida Politics, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. A Florida wire service, the Wall Street Journal, and Business Insider were among the few mainstream outlets allowed to cover at least some parts of the weekend:

"It has come to my attention that some liberal media activists are mad because they aren't allowed into #SunshineSummit this weekend,” DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw tweeted Friday. "My message to them is to try crying about it," she continued, “Then go to kickboxing and have a margarita. And write the same hit piece you were gonna write anyway." As the Tallahassee Democrat notes, Republicans continued to bash mainstream publications at the event itself, with DeSantis telling the Daily Wire that he wanted to avoid "a bunch of left-wing media asking our primary candidates a bunch of gotcha questions” and his campaign spokesman, Dave Abrams, claiming the media “tantrums” about press credentials “validates our presumption that fair coverage was never a thought for them.”

Recent comments from DeSantis and others in the GOP speak to an emerging strategy, one that New York’s David Freedlander defined Monday as “actively courting the media’s scorn while avoiding anything that may be viewed as consorting with the enemy.” As Freedlander notes, Republicans for decades, going back to the Nixon years, have taken aim at the mainstream press, but the dynamic has ratcheted up since Donald Trump’s political rise, evidenced by a lack of participation by Republicans in everything from political profiles to daily news stories—as well as comments from those advising them. “I just don’t even see what the point is anymore,” an adviser to one likely GOP presidential aspirant told Freedlander. “We know reporters always disagreed with the Republican Party, but it used to be you thought you could get a fair shake. Now every reporter, and every outlet, is just chasing resistance rage-clicks.” Some, such as the Times’ Jeremy Peters, suggest that Republicans are dodging press scrutiny because they “don’t want to have to defend Donald Trump and his falsehoods about the election.” Which could explain why one aide to a potential 2024 candidate told Freedlander that booking Steve Bannon’s podcast is more attractive than a sit-down with a mainstream outlet.

Freedlander cited Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s recent remarks in Iowa as further evidence of the GOP’s overarching view “that approval from the mainstream press isn’t just unnecessary but actually suspect.” (A data-backed notion, apparently: GOP strategist Dave Carney said his team’s research has found “getting endorsed by a newspaper editorial board, even a local one, hurts Republicans in primaries rather than helps them,” according to Freedlander.) 

In a speech at the Family Leadership Summit last week, Carlson—who, in what feels like a lifetime ago, once urged conservative media to be more like the Times when it comes to accuracy—advised Republican voters “to be really wary of candidates who care about what the New York Times think” and “pay very close attention to how people react” when “things get out of control unexpectedly.” Former South Carolina governor and likely 2024 presidential contender Nikki Haley tweeting that the murder of George Floyd was “personal and painful” for her, Carlson said, was case in point. “You have no idea what you're talking about. You're trying to please the people whose opinions you actually care about at the New York Times,” he said of Haley. “I want a leader who can still think clearly” when “the other side really unleashes.”

Trump shattered precedent during the 2016 election cycle through his campaign’s media blacklist, with numerous outlets, including the Washington Post, Politico, and BuzzFeed, refused press credentials to cover his public events. Trump, who complained about the presidential debate process during both his campaigns, refused to participate in one in 2020. This 2022 midterms cycle, GOP primary candidates in battleground states have clamped down on media access and increasingly avoided debates—forums traditionally moderated by the media. “Over a half dozen GOP candidates in crucial state and federal races have either skipped out on or not committed to primary debates,” ABC News reported back in April, noting that there are “ripple effects” of candidates opting out of debating. 

Earlier this year, a debate among Republican gubernatorial candidates in Ohio was canceled after current governor Mike DeWine, followed by another candidate, declined to participate. Republican candidates are becoming more “empowered” to shirk traditional debates, State Debate Coalition president Richard Davis told ABC News. Herschel Walker, the former football star trying to oust Sen. Raphael Warnock in Georgia, didn’t debate in the Senate GOP primary, and it’s still unclear whether he’s going to debate his opponent in October. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last week that Walker “left himself an out” in telling reporters, “If we negotiate and we got everything right, we’ll be debating on Oct. 16 and I’ll be ready to go,” adding, “I don’t just do what they say. I’m running a campaign the way I want to run it.” According to the Journal-Constitution, Walker’s comment is “the most specific he has been” about debating Warnock, even as the Senate candidate “hasn’t committed to a time or place.”

The future of presidential debates also remains to be seen, as the Republican National Committee in April “voted unanimously” to withdraw from the Commission on Presidential Debates, the nonpartisan organization that has organized that has hosted the debates for more than three decades. The move came after the RNC accused the commission, which includes Republican and Democratic co-chairs, of being biased, echoing attacks Trump repeatedly leveled on the group. “Debates are an important part of the democratic process,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement at the time, vowing that the party was “going to find newer, better debate platforms” without specifying what those would be.