Posted on 07/19/2023 1:59:09 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
Ron DeSantis and his team do not really believe the narrative they have constructed against Donald Trump around COVID, with one of his top financial backers telling the media the ruse is just “politics”.
“No one believes he actually believes any of the stuff about the vaccine,” said one “megadonor” on the condition of anonymity, adding: “If you talk to the non-crazy people he’s got working for him, they don’t believe it, either. It’s politics.”
The donor didn’t say who the crazies or non-crazies were, in their estimation, but told Rolling Stone they now have doubts about the DeSantis campaign having been an early, big money backer.
GOP pollsters are also questioning the wisdom of DeSantis focusing on the topic, observing it as an increasingly low priority for Republican voters amidst inflation, crime, the economy, and America’s border crisis. The topic may also damage DeSantis by inviting scrutiny of his own pandemic record.
While the Florida Governor has claimed he would have fired Anthony Fauci in Trump’s position — with his team even circulating AI-generated images of Trump kissing the retired technocrat — questions are now being raised as to why he did not fire “Florida’s Fauci”, Dr. Alina Alonso.
The Palm Beach County health director hailed Fauci as her “patron saint,” and said her job persuading Governor DeSantis to go along with the mandates and other restrictions was “a piece of cake” compared to Fauci’s job persuading then-President Trump to do the same.
DeSantis has slumped to 14 points in a recent national poll of likely voters.
Exactly which vaccine “stuff” is it that nobody believes?
So is this supposed to be some sort of massive scandal?
I'm really not interested what he believed or didn't believe. He did the right thing in the end.
Whether you agree with him or not about the vaccines and covid, his position about it as Governor was highly defendable.
Just the same BS from National Pulse. If they can’t find a photo of a Trump competitor crapping on a puppy they’ll find someone who swears it happened.
This FReeper cares nothing for the facts. He simply posts article after article that presents DeSantis in a negative light. It’s very, very strange.
Take us to genetic engineering bio warfare hell at Warpspeed! Aye aye Captain!
I want Billy Bob for POTUS!!!
Well that is one very valid criticism of DeSantis that is entirely valid - his disingenuousness on the COVID narrative to try to create a means to attack Trump. It was garbage. It is not effective against Trump, and moreover, DeSantis threw away major bragging rights he could have campaigned on with regard to how he got Florida out of the COVID crises earlier than many other states. He took an all of the above approach and was even more aggressive to making treatments available to all vs. making vaccines available to those who wanted them. He even had to battle with the Biden administration when they tried to block and prevent the efforts to provide treatment.
It could have been an entirely positive campaign narrative to build up his positives - a major campaign plank. It was a stupid move in more ways than one. Now he not only blew a huge opportunity when he had it, but what’s more - given how he tried to change the entire narrative to be a negative on Trump himself (rather than against Biden) - he now can’t reclaim it in the future - either in the primary, or if somehow was to pull this off, he also negates being able to use it for himself and against Biden.
Some think it works and is as safe as any other vaccine. Some do not. What’s important is that the vaccine be voluntary, and DeSantis and Trump are both in this camp.
DeSantis is really proving to be small potatoes
Trying to implement vehicle checkpoints at the Florida state line while illegal aliens poured in is indefensible.
Just politics?
How are we to believe anything he says then?
Ho hum. I'm a Trump supporter yet I won't believe this against DeSantis until I hear it from Mr. Anonymous himself.
He’s attacked Trump for condemning the Florida Pulse Nightclub attack and inviting gays to vote for Republicans (28% voted Trump in 2020) just as Trump asked the black community, what do you have to lose voting by Republican instead? Then there’s the postcards in Iowa.
At this point I am wondering if DeSantis is a closet case. This is 2023, not 1983. To defeat Dems we need a broad coalition of voters.
Pandering to false Republican stereotypes isn’t going to do anything but end up like the Dole, McCain & Romney presidential races. I didn’t understand Trump’s silly name for DeSantis until recently. Now I can’t unsee it. DeSantis is earning the label. He should be better than this.
I saw the ‘debate’ earlier - please DOUBLE DOWN with the warnings about DeSantis, even if that upsets the Ukraine War supporters.
DeSantis claims he would have fired Fauci early on. 20/20 hindsight is great, but in the spring of 2020, Fauci was still widely respected - firing him would have been inexplicable.
Pres. Trump used deceptive language to impugn Gov. DeSantis’ record on COVID. DeSantis is like Trump in that he doesn’t back down from a fight. To just let Trump say that New York’s COVID record was better than Florida’s was outrageous.
As to firing a mere county health official, she had no power outside of her county, unlike Fauci who was running the COVID pandemic until Trump decided enough was enough. DeSantis let the counties decide how they wanted to handle the pandemic, because some have more population density than do others, and that’s a big factor. It’s much like how our federal and state relationship is supposed to work but often doesn’t.
Fauci and this county health official certainly shared the same pandemic views, but he was funding the lab and was rewarded with a medal for another medical issue, despite Trump knowing what he knew about Fauci by then.
I’m not sure why the county official was even considered to be his “Fauci” when he had a surgeon general to consult. When his first SG was all gung-ho for keeping masks mandated for another year or longer, he was pulled out of the meeting addressing COVID and apparently left out of the governor’s plans to open Florida back up. Eventually that SG was replaced by one who is skeptical of masks and of the vaccines. And, the state legislature removed the power to mandate masks from the surgeon general’s authority.
DeSnakis Placemarker 🐍
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.