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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is denouncing his 2024 presidential rival, former President Donald Trump, for failing to "control" Dr. Anthony Fauci.
During a Fox News interview on Monday, DeSantis snapped back at Trump after being shown a clip of the ex-president saying that "other governors did a better job than Ron DeSanctimonious" at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. DeSantis also promised that he would be bringing "a reckoning to the medical swamp" in Washington, D.C., if elected in 2024.
DeSantis told anchor Bret Baier that Trump should have fired Fauci, at the time the country's top infectious-disease expert and key member of the former president's White House Coronavirus Task Force, but instead elevated him to the level of an "international celebrity." The governor maintained that Fauci "ran" Trump's administration during its final year.
"[Trump] didn't have control over his own government," said DeSantis. "He didn't have control over Fauci. Fauci ran that government his last year in office. Trump should have fired him, he did not do that. He elevated Fauci and he made Fauci an international celebrity ... I fought back against it."
The former president had a famously rocky relationship with Fauci while he was serving as an adviser on the pandemic, with the doctor's medical expertise often clashing with Trump's thoughts and hunches on the virus and the best ways to fight it. Trump has repeatedly attacked Fauci since leaving the White House.
DeSantis on Monday said that Trump had previously offered repeated praise for him and Florida, and that the ex-president only "flip-flopped" on him when it became clear that he was a "threat" to his hopes of regaining the presidency in 2024.
"Let's just be clear: You go back a year or two, he would say what a great job I've done in Florida," DeSantis said. "How I'm one of the country's great governors, how Florida is such a great state. He always said that, for years and years.
"Until about three days before the midterm election," he continued. "Then he started to attack me. And I think it's because he saw that we were going to win a big victory. And I think he viewed me as a political threat. So, now he's flip-flopped on all that."
Newsweek reached out for comment to Trump's office via email on Monday.
DeSantis went on to speak out against the COVID-19 vaccine, claiming that "we were told if you take the vax, you will not get COVID" and "that is not true." However, no serious medical authority claims that the COVID-19 vaccine, or any other vaccine, is 100 percent effective in preventing infection.
Although COVID-19 vaccines have become less potent at preventing infections with the emergence of new strains of the virus, the vaccines still reduce the likelihood of infection to some degree and continue to provide significant protection against dire outcomes like hospitalization and death.
DeSantis also denounced the medical experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for recommending annual COVID booster shots before vowing to overrule the consensus of the medical establishment if he becomes president.
"For CDC to say they should be doing annual boosters like a flu shot, there is not sufficient data to support that," said DeSantis. "One of the things I'm going to do, we're going to bring a reckoning to the medical swamp in D.C. ... They failed the American people, you're going to see big changes."
About the writer
Aila Slisco is a Newsweek night reporter based in New York. Her focus is on reporting national politics, where she ... Read more