DeSantis rejects Trump’s declare that Cuomo dealt with COVID-19 pandemic higher

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) rejected former President Donald Trump’s declare that former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo did a greater job at dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic than he did.

DeSantis stated Trump’s declare was “very weird,” contemplating Florida had a decrease “extra mortality price” than each New York and California.

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“But when he thinks Cuomo dealt with it higher, that’s a sign if one thing like this have been to occur once more, he would double down and do what he did in March of 2020,” DeSantis stated on the Ben Shapiro Present on Friday. “That was a tough scenario. We did not have all of the information, and folks can form of perceive should you did issues that won’t have labored out.”

He continued: “However all of us have to sit down right here at present in 2023, look again on March of 2020, and say, ‘Faucism was mistaken. Faucism was harmful. Faucism has set us on this path with the CARES Act and the Fed printing cash, creating inflation, and creating a number of the financial issues that we’ve at present.’ So, should you might do it once more, would he do the identical factor? I positive hope not.”

DeSantis added that Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Ailments Director Anthony Fauci ought to have been fired throughout Trump’s administration as a substitute of elevated.

The feedback come after Trump asserted that Florida had the third-highest dying price within the nation in 2021, regardless of having the 18th-highest dying price per 100,000 residents that yr, based on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. New York had the fourth-highest dying price.

Trump has additionally criticized DeSantis for shutting down the state, together with closing seashores, claiming that different governors didn’t. However DeSantis locked down Florida later than most states, issuing a stay-at-home order in April 2020 and lifting it in September.

Cuomo has confronted heavy criticism for his dealing with of the pandemic, particularly in relation to nursing properties. A report by New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James discovered that Cuomo drastically undercounted the deaths from COVID-19 in nursing properties. Cuomo finally resigned as governor in 2021 amid a sexual harassment scandal.

The alternate comes after DeSantis entered the presidential race on Wednesday, shortly after Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) entered the race on Monday. Nonetheless, DeSantis is the one candidate to pose a severe problem to Trump at the moment.