Newly announced GOP 2024 presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis (Fla) fired shots at former President Trump after he claimed former Democrat New York Governor Andrew Cuomo "did better" in his COVID-19 response.
Calling Trump's accusations "very bizarre," DeSantis argued that Florida, which remained almost entirely open throughout the pandemic, had a lower mortality rate than Democrat-run New York.
"Part of that is because states like California had excess mortality derived from the lockdown policy, which is really, really avoidable mortality," DeSantis said, pointing out that Cuomo is why hundreds of people died due to his nursing home scandal.
"But if he thinks Cuomo handled it better, that's an indication if something like this were to happen again, he would double down and do what he did in March of 2020," the governor added.
DeSantis blasted Dr. Anthony Fauci, saying the NIH Director destroyed America and fueled the country's economic issues.
"But we all have to sit here today in 2023, look back on March of 2020, and say, 'Faucism was wrong," DeSantis continued. “Faucism was destructive. Faucism has set us on this path with the CARES Act and the Fed printing money, creating inflation, and creating some of the economic problems that we have today."
He also reminded Americans that Trump "turned the reins over" to Fauci when the president should have instead fired him.
On the contrary, in February, Trump blamed his 2024 rival for trying to rewrite history, bashing his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Florida was actually closed for a great, long period of time," Trump told reporters. "Remember, he closed the beaches and everything else? They're trying to rewrite history."
Now that DeSantis is officially in the race for the GOP nominee, the two top contenders will surely dig up any dirt on one another as they kick off their campaigns.
On the one hand, Trump is up in the polls, with likely voters saying they would vote for the former president over DeSantis if the election were held today. On the other hand, however, the governor saw groundbreaking numbers from people donating to his campaign just 24 hours after announcing his run.