Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took a swing at Republican major frontrunner Donald Trump Thursday, saying the forty fifth president “turned the country over” to Dr. Anthony Fauci through the COVID-19 pandemic and “destroyed millions of people’s lives” consequently.
“I think he did great for three years, but when he turned the country over to Fauci in March of 2020, that destroyed millions of people’s lives,” the 44-year-old DeSantis instructed radio host Glenn Beck, referring to the longtime Nationwide Institutes of Well being official and former chief medical adviser to President Biden.
“And in Florida, we have been one of many few that stood up, reduce in opposition to the grain, took incoming fireplace from media, paperwork, the left, even loads of Republicans, had colleges open, preserved companies.
“And so Florida, since COVID, has outperformed virtually any state in the country, when you look at all these significant metrics, I mean, we’re booming,” the governor went on. “We’ve acquired individuals transferring in right here. Wealth is coming in right here.
“And so I think when people look back — that 2020 year was not a good year for the country as a whole. It was a situation where Florida started to stand alone. So I think that that’s important contrast.”
The DeSantis marketing campaign acquired off to a shaky begin on Wednesday, launching his presidential marketing campaign in a Twitter Areas dialog with billionaire Elon Musk that crashed and had audio reduce out a number of instances because of the variety of listeners.
Trump, 76, who’s main DeSantis by double-digit margins in latest major polls, has faulted the Florida governor for his dealing with of COVID-19, claiming he really “shut down [the] Sunshine State.”
“Florida was actually closed, for a great, long period of time,” Trump instructed reporters in February. “Remember, he closed the beaches and everything else? They’re trying to rewrite history.”
COVID lockdowns have been initially adopted by most state governors in March 2020, however Florida was among the many first states to elevate stay-at-home orders and finish enterprise closures.
Along with his anti-lockdown stance, DeSantis has highlighted his opposition to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
“The way they weaponized these COVID vaxxes was a massive incursion into our freedoms,” DeSantis instructed the Florida Household Coverage Council final weekend. “They wanted to deny people the right to put food on their table if they didn’t bend the knee and get a COVID shot that they may not have wanted and that many of them did not need.”
“We can never allow ‘Warp Speed’ to trump informed consent in this country ever again,” he added, referring to the Trump-era identify for the vaccine push.
The Biden administration later took over the venture as a part of the White Home COVID-19 Response Workforce and pressed for federal worker vaccination mandates all through the primary two years of the president’s time period.
Biden let the mandates quietly expire earlier this month after a collection of court docket battles with state officers over the pressured vaccinations.
DeSantis in November 2021 signed a legislation that banned the vaccine mandates for state workers, together with public college staff.
He has questioned the efficacy of the vaccines and final yr pushed for a grand jury investigation into the matter.
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