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."
Donald Trump tells the truth, finally.
— Andrew Cuomo (@andrewcuomo) May 30, 2023
New York got hit first and worst but New Yorkers acted responsibly. Florida’s policy of denial allowed Covid to spread and that’s why they had a very large second wave. https://t.co/dZb59fsSPu
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.
🚨🚨ENDORSEMENT ALERT🚨🚨
— Max, Florida Expert (@MaxNordau) May 31, 2023
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo endorses Donald J. Trump for President.
Feel free to share widely.
Make sure EVERYONE knows. pic.twitter.com/E3asIHx4Q8
Dana Loesch offered that it was "peak primary," while a user wondered if Trump was saying as much "on purpose to lose."
Is Trump doing this on purpose to lose? It's almost as if he's trying to give people reasons to dump him for DeSantis.
— John Cole (@Alt1J) May 31, 2023
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:
...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.
BREAKING: After Trump praises Andrew Cuomo’s COVID response, the disgraced former New York governor endorses Trump 2024. pic.twitter.com/FoUhsALCM2
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) May 30, 2023
1) Cuomo forced sick patients into nursing homes when we already knew the elderly were vulnerable.
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) May 30, 2023
2) Florida’s all cause mortality is lower than the state of NY.
3) NY still hasn’t recovered the jobs they lost, their tax base, or their residents.
cc: @JaniceDean https://t.co/0C2Wai5Ve5
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."
.@GovRonDeSantis in Iowa clowns President Trump and family over moving to Florida under his watch
— The Floridian (@Floridianpress) May 31, 2023
READ MORE: https://t.co/MbOelac2MI
"Hell, his whole family moved to Florida under my governorship, are you kidding me?”#DeSantis2024 #Flpol pic.twitter.com/TGuNbiNsGI
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.
For people who don’t understand what drove some of the DeSantis policy on Covid and especially his early shift against lockdowns, I highly recommend you watch this clip where he gets emotional talking about the unconsidered costs that were imposed on a lot of families: https://t.co/NKjtNgJPyj
— AG (@AGHamilton29) May 26, 2023
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.
Trying to bury the latest news about you illegally using staff resources to write your blood money book while flooding nursing homes with thousands of covid positive patients prohibiting them being tested and then covering up the death toll? https://t.co/JUGz7bexxJ
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) May 30, 2023
This is a person who has no shame. His super power is having no shame whatsoever. https://t.co/Poy9hK7gtf
— Lindsey Boylan (@LindseyBoylan) May 30, 2023
If your game is to pretend @andrewcuomo did a good job despite helping to kill thousands of elderly, profit of their deaths and cover up how many died, then there’s no way you will ever win my vote.
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) May 30, 2023
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.
More proof that @andrewcuomo
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) May 30, 2023
cared more about selling a 5.1 M book to the highest bidder than taking care of New Yorkers during a pandemic:
Emails Confirm That Cuomo's Staff Launched Its 'Book' Project in March 2020 - @empirecenter https://t.co/MJIvwP4XvU
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