Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis hit back at former President Trump after he claimed former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, “did better” in his response to COVID-19 despite Cuomo’s infamous nursing home scandal.
DeSantis hit back at Trump on Friday after the former president said Cuomo handled COVID-19 better than the governor of Florida. DeSantis called the claim “very bizarre.”
“First of all, Florida had less excess mortality than California or New York,” DeSantis said. “Part of that is because states like California had excess mortality derived from the lockdown policy, which is really, really preventable mortality.”
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Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis hit back at former President Trump after he claimed former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, “did better” in his response to COVID-19 despite the murderous nursing home scandal. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“But if he thinks Cuomo handled it better, that’s an indication that if something like this were to happen again, he would double down and do what he did in March 2020,” DeSantis told Ben Shapiro Show.
“It was a tough situation. We didn’t have all the facts, and people can kind of understand if you did things that maybe didn’t work out,” the presidential candidate said. GOP.
“But we all have to sit here today in 2023, look back to March 2020 and say, ‘Faucism was wrong. Faucism was destructive. Faucism put us on this path with the CARES Act and the Fed printing money, creating inflation, and creating some of the economic problems we have today.”
Then-President Donald Trump listens to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speak about the coronavirus in the James Brady Briefing Room, Tuesday, March 24, 2020, in Washington. ((AP Photo/Alex Brandon))
“So if you could do it again, would it do the same?” DeSantis added. “I sure hope not.”
DeSantis also said Fauci “should have been fired” by Trump while he was president and that the former president “responded” to the pandemic by “handing over the reins” to Fauci, “elevating him.”
DeSantis and Trump traded barbs this week after DeSantis officially entered the 2024 Republican presidential primary, with the Cuomo affair being just the latest example.
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Cuomo drew significant criticism for his administration’s handling of the pandemic, which included sending coronavirus patients to nursing homes and then changing state reporting of nursing home deaths. .
Cuomo’s decision to place coronavirus patients may have directly contributed to more than 1,000 deaths, a study has found.
