Liberals have been lying about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for so long, reporters don’t even notice it anymore.

That was painfully evident in one of the more bizarre moments to come out of the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Saturday, when the evening’s headline entertainer, Comedy Central host Trevor Noah, went on a riff about the Republican governor after “spotting” him in the audience.

The only problem was, DeSantis wasn’t in the room. He wasn't at the event. But no one in a room full of “journalists” apparently noticed, or thought to check it.

“Many big names here tonight,” Noah said. “One of my favorites, Ron DeSantis is here. I’m actually surprised that he found the time. You know, he has been so busy trying to outmaneuver [former President Donald] Trump for 2024."

The comedian not only pointed to a fictitious DeSantis in the audience, but he also addressed the governor directly about 12 seconds into the video with an “I see you, Ron! I see you, player.”

“I see what you’ve been doing," he said. "Blaming Trump for the lockdowns, distancing yourself from the vaccines that Trump created with his own two hands …”

“But Ron, Ron is playing it coy, man,” Noah said, with another significant gesture to the audience, like his subject was hanging on every word.

The camera panned to the crowd a couple of times, as though to show how DeSantis was taking the jokes coming his way.

But there was no DeSantis to show.

Trevor Noah on FL Gov. DeSantis eyeing a 2024 presidential run: ‘Ron DeSantis is one step ahead [of Trump]. First you ban the math textbooks, then nobody knows how to count the votes’ #WHCD pic.twitter.com/HZ6iyXybmG

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) May 1, 2022

Noah -- and maybe even the cameraman -- might have been fooled because DeSantis’ name was apparently listed in the event’s program as being among those in attendance.

But at a news conference Monday in the Sunshine State, far from the Beltway crowd, the governor said he was not only not at the dinner but never would have gone to it in the first place.

Asked if he ever intended to go to the event, DeSantis didn’t leave a lot of wiggle room with his answer.

“I would never attend that,” he said. “I have no interest in that. I did not watch it. I don’t care what they do. But for them to advertise me, when that invitation was rejected by my office, that is a lie."

Gov. DeSantis responds to Trevor Noah's jokes about him at the White House Correspondents Dinner:

"I don’t care what they do... It just shows you why that cabal of people in DC, New York are so reviled by so many Americans.” pic.twitter.com/EmxAlWfSgR

— X Strategies LLC (@XStrategiesLLC) May 2, 2022

The governor said the whole story about his non-attendance and Noah's act spoke volumes about the mainstream media with its power bases in New York City and the nation’s capital.

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“And so here they are, saying how important they are, that they’re somehow these paragons of truth, and yet there they are lying about something that is readily verifiable,” he said.

“And so the idea that I was there is false. The idea that I would have ever gone is false. And why they would want to try to perpetuate a lie about that, I don’t know. But I think it just shows you why that cabal of people in D.C.-New York are so reviled by so many Americans. I think it’s a reputation that’s been well deserved.”

No one who’s been in even casual contact with news about DeSantis in recent years wouldn't have expected him to attend the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.

With the exception of Trump, DeSantis is probably the top Republican target for mainstream media attacks in the country.

He’s been smeared by “60 Minutes” over his state’s coronavirus vaccination program. He’s been attacked by Hollywood and every other bastion of liberal power over his state’s law to keep young children from being exposed to progressive sex education from kindergarten to third grade.

It would be hard to think of a single issue where DeSantis has not attracted venomous criticism from the left, which has only made him more popular among the sane part of the population.

At a time when the worthies behind the White House Correspondents' Association are more responsible for spreading progressive propaganda than practicing actual journalism, a Ron DeSantis would have as much place at one of their preening, self-congratulatory dinners as Trump himself would have.

In the course of his presidency, Trump never attended the group's dinner, and for good reason. There was nothing good-natured about the relationship between his administration and Washington's press establishment -- the correspondents' dinners during his tenure proved that. (Does everyone remember a screeching harridan named Michelle Wolfe and her 15 minutes of fame?)

DeSantis himself is often touted as a top GOP candidate for 2024, and if he is and becomes the next president, it’s a pretty sure bet he would follow Trump’s example regarding the event.

With any luck, it could become a tradition that Democratic presidents can have dinner with the lying bootlickers who've disgraced a once-honorable profession, while Republican presidents spend their time with moral human beings.

Americans would then know exactly what political party had the amen chorus in the supposedly objective mainstream media.

And there would be no lying about whether Ron DeSantis was there.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.