Liberal country fans revolted after superstar Luke Bryan brought Gov. DeSantis on stage during his Jacksonville, Florida concert, despite the huge charitable contribution the singer announced.
The “Raised Up Right” tour finally made it to VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena on Friday, after Hurricane Ian and the storm’s destructive aftermath forced Bryan to postpone three shows in the Sunshine State.
The country crooner surprised fans in Jacksonville, by opening the concert without his typical flourish and appearing on the stage while the house lights were still up.
Bryan told fans that they were going to have fun and raise money for the state of Florida, before welcoming DeSantis to the stage, who delighted concert goers by tossing hats into the “USA” chanting crowd.
“The state of Florida had to deal with the major hurricane last month, and it’s not easy to deal with. It’s hurt a lot of people,” the governor told the audience. “Though I can tell you this, show me any other state that can rebuild bridges in three days. I don’t think you can find that.”
The “Crash My Party” singer told the crowd that the venue he had been set to play in was used as a shelter during the hurricane, and he was hesitant to reschedule the concert too prematurely.
“Well, we’ve been going back and forth, we didn’t know if it was too soon to play or not but the area of Estero said, ‘Get your a– to Estero,’ so, we’re doing a concert,” he said. “So, what we’re going to do is give a large portion of the proceeds in Estero, Florida … to everybody that’s bought tickets, kept the ticket, and spending the money… I’m donating that money to the great state of Florida.”
Bryan thoughtfully offered a “gift” to the DeSantis, who he playfully began to misname as the governor of Georgia, before presenting him with a red Georgia jersey on the same night the Bulldogs crushed the Gators 42-20, at the annual rivalry game between the schools.
“We’d like to donate this beautiful Brock Bowers jersey to you,” Bryan gleefully announced as fans jeered.
“I remember when we used to win the game every year,” DeSantis crowed back.
While the local crowd was delighted with the presence of their fearlessly conservative leader, the liberal internet called for the “Shake It For Me” singer to be cancelled by fans.
“That’s the sound of every LGBTQ person who was a fan of Luke Bryan exiting. Cancelled,” one person wrote.
“And Luke Bryan just got crossed off the playlist,” added another.
While others called for singing competition “American Idol” to drop Bryan from the judge’s panel.
“Hey [American Idol] did you know you had a singing judge, Luke Bryan, who supports a racist and homophobic on your show,” someone else threatened. “If you continue to have him on the show you will lose my viewership. Disgusting!”
“I won’t be watching American idol as long as you have Luke Bryan as a judge,” an ABC viewer stated. “Anyone who supports anti-lgbtq, anti-immigrant, human trafficking, nazi loving, fascists like DeSantis doesn’t deserve our support.”
“Hey Luke Bryan – if you don’t want to be seen as political, don’t bring a psychotically deranged human trafficking child torturing right wing extremist like Ron DeSantis on stage during your concert,” a Twitter troll posted.
“You can raise money for hurricane victims without bringing out a politician who trafficked humans as a publicity stunt and is writing laws sure to kill women in addition to jailing them for life for medical choices,” someone else added.
One angry tweeter remarked that “it awkward to tell a sitting governor to f–k off,” but said that Bryan “really should have,” because they believe that palling around with DeSantis makes the singer “look bad.”
“It’s country music so I’m not surprised, but [Bryan is a ] confirmed as a MAGA a–hole,” someone wrote.
Others thought the Internet’s insane reactions were comical. “Seeing the liberals leftist nut jobs lose their minds that Ron DeSantis was at a Luke Bryan concert for a fundraising event is too funny,” one person posted.
The comments and hate [Bryan] is getting is truly outrageous. The guy brings Gov. [DeSantis]on stage to raise money, crowd goes wild, and the supposed tolerant left goes insane,” another added. “The guy’s music is a little too non-country for me but the hate makes me respect him more.”
Amidst the backlash, Bryan put on an exciting show for Florida fans, and is slated to make up his cancelled concerts between Nov. 2-5.