COVID-19 wars continue in the 2024 presidential race between Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump.
During an interview on the Steve Deace Show, the Florida Governor lampooned the President’s disavowal of a late-term presidential commendation he granted to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“Of course he did give Fauci a presidential commendation his last day in office. Megyn Kelly asked him about it,” DeSantis said. “What was that? Was that the immaculate commendation that just happened to happen?”
Kelly raised the Fauci commendation as a point of criticism Republicans have raised, and asked Trump to answer for it.
“Ah … I don’t know who gave him the commendation,” Trump told the talk show host Wednesday. “I really don’t know who gave him the commendation.”
That dodge didn’t sit well with DeSantis.
“I thought it was really pathetic to sit there and listen to that drivel,” DeSantis told Deace. “It is totally false.”
Though Fauci is no longer part of the federal government, having left his position as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and as the chief medical advisor to the President, DeSantis continues to make blasts of the doctor central to his Primary pitch.
“I was born and raised in Florida. And while I’ve always loved the state, we didn’t have the same type of pride growing up that, say, people in Texas have about Texas. And yet in the last few years, particularly since I’ve been Governor, we’ve developed that pride and I think a lot of it is rooted in the fact that we told people like Fauci to take a hike during COVID,” DeSantis told Russell Brand in July.
Though the Never Back Down super PAC is not legally allowed to coordinate with DeSantis’ campaign, it also has helped to reinforce this messaging. An ad from the spring called “Steel” is predicated on a central image: a picture of a White man in a hard hat watching Trump and Fauci talking COVID-19 mitigation strategies.
Fauci was also a recurrent motif during DeSantis’ re-election campaign, with merchandise such as “Freedom over Fauci flip-flops” marketed to the faithful in 2022.
“Fauci doesn’t care about doing what’s right or using even basic common sense. He’s too caught up in TV interviews, magazine covers and the adulation and acceptance from elitists that he’s likely craved his entire life,” the Governor wrote in an email last year entitled “Permanent Faucism.”
Fauci served as a punching bag during more than one surge of COVID-19, and the Governor’s team found a merchandise opportunity there as well. When the delta variant strained hospital capacity in Florida, DeSantis’ political committee released merchandise lampooning Fauci, including “Don’t Fauci My Florida” beer koozies and T-shirts.
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