Tipsheet

People Certainly Are Taking Note of the Latest 'Endorsement' Trump Has Earned

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  May 31, 2023 11:45 AM

Now that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has officially declared he is running for president, primary opponent Donald Trump has really ratcheted up the attacks. Last week, as Guy highlighted, Trump claimed that "even Cuomo did better" than DeSantis on COVID-19, referring to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY).

On Tuesday night, Cuomo responded over Twitter by tweeting out an article from Florida Politics. "Donald Trump tells the truth, finally," Cuomo wrote while sharing the article. He also claimed that "New Yorkers acted responsibly" and that Florida had a "policy of denial."

The tweet certainly got people's attention, with an overwhelming amount of the retweets being people reacting to the oddity of it all. Some even joked that Cuomo provided an endorsement. 

Dana Loesch offered that it was "peak primary," while a user wondered if Trump was saying as much "on purpose to lose."

Florida did lose more people to COVID by sheer numbers, but it also has more people and a high elderly population. They performed well by other metrics, though. As Guy succinctly explained it best:

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...Florida had the third-most COVID deaths because it has the third highest population in the country.  New York had fewer COVID deaths because it has almost two million fewer residents.  According to these statistics, Florida outperformed New York (and many other states) on per capita deaths, which is impressive, given its disproportionately older population.  Florida also outperformed New York (and many other states) on the key metric of so-called 'excess deaths.'

The DeSantis War Room responded to Cuomo over Twitter, as did Jeremy Redfern, the governor's press secretary.

DeSantis himself on Tuesday night brought up Trump's claims while speaking to reporters from Iowa, which is "not what [Trump] used to say," and "is like new," since "six months ago he would have never said that, right?" In addition to how Trump "used to say how great Florida was," DeSantis reminded how "hell, his whole family moved to Florida under my governorship," to laughter. "Are you kidding me?" 

To applause, DeSantis pointed out he was going to "counterpunch, I'm going to fight back on it, I'm going to focus my fire on Biden, and I think [Trump] should do the same, complaining that Trump "gives Biden a free pass" but "I'm focusing on Biden."

A clip of comments from DeSantis getting emotional about COVID lockdowns keeping people from saying goodbye to their loved ones has also been making the rounds once more.

It also bears reminding that Cuomo mishandled COVID by forcing nursing homes to take in COVID-positive patients, one of his many scandals in the last few years of his governorship before he resigned. 

Fox News' Janice Dean, who lost both her mother-in-law and a short time later her father-in-law when they contacted COVID in their assisted living facility, tweeted and retweeted about Cuomo's remarks.

Speaking of Cuomo's scandals, Dean's pinned tweet from Tuesday details how Cuomo staff assisted the then-governor with his book project on "leadership." The book deal was canceled, though he got to keep his $5.1 million proceeds from the deal.