Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) gave his response to criticisms lobbied at him by former President Donald Trump over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic during the early days of the outbreak.
Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, DeSantis at first joked he gets criticized for just rolling out of bed.
"If you look at the good thing about it, though, is like, If you take a crisis situation like COVID, the good thing about it is when you’re an elected executive, you have to make all kinds of decisions, you got to steer that ship. And the good thing is is that the people are able to render a judgment on that, whether they reelect you or not, and I’m happy to say you know in my case, mot only did we win reelection, we won with the highest percentage of the vote that any Republican governor candidate has in the history of the state of Florida," DeSantis said.
"We won by the largest raw vote margin, over 1.5 million votes, more than any governor candidate has ever had," he continued. "What I would just say is that verdict has been rendered by the people of the state of Florida."
DeSantis responds to Trump's criticism of his COVID response:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 31, 2023
"I roll out of bed, I have people attacking me from all angles. It's been happening for many many years...The people are able to render a judgement on that, whether they reelect you, or not." pic.twitter.com/7gbsbqpwoE
During the same event, DeSantis announced the state will be eliminating all funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucracies on state colleges and universities.
Trump said that "DeSanctimonious" had "unapologetically" closed down Florida and had done worse than other Republican governors during the COVID pandemic.
Trump attacks Desantis on truth social. pic.twitter.com/kXBdhkXphO
— CCG BRYSON (@RealBrysonGray) January 30, 2023