Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) responded to a report on Wednesday that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s (D) administration is under federal investigation over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as it relates to how the state handled its reporting on nursing home data.
“Florida, in terms of coronavirus, we have less coronavirus per capita in terms of deaths than the national average and we have the second oldest population in the United States, we have less cases per capita than the national average,” DeSantis told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “And yet, we have all schools open, we have all businesses able to operate, everyone has a right to work, our unemployment below the national average, our tax revenue is much higher than expectations. And so I think what we’ve learned is two things. One, when you deal with a pandemic, it doesn’t mean that every other issue in society simply goes away.”
“You have to deal with folks’ ability to earn a living, to educate their kids, and mental health and well-being,” he continued. “But what we’ve also learned is these lockdowns on their own just don’t work. Even if you didn’t care about economy, even if he didn’t care about education, they don’t work to stop the spread. And I think the results in Florida and elsewhere show that. People want to come here, because they know we’re a free state. And I think that the facts have borne us out to have made the right decisions.”
Several minutes later, Ingraham brought up last night’s breaking news about the investigation into the Cuomo administration and asked for DeSantis’s reaction to the news.
“Well, if you go back to March, I was getting criticized for not closing the beaches, which you don’t close beaches for respiratory virus. So, I was right on that,” DeSantis responded. “But the media totally ignored how the governors were handling the nursing homes. We did an order right at the beginning saying hospitals cannot discharge COVID positive nursing home residents back to nursing homes. By doing that we saved hundreds if not thousands of lives. And so we made the right decision at the outset. And again, the facts have borne us out over these many months.”
WATCH:
TRANSCRIPT:
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Joining me now is one of the first elected officials to stand up to the lies and to all the goalpost shifting of the medical cartel, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Governor, I remember early on there were a few governors, Brian Kemp, you, Kristi Noem, a few others, were just trashed by a lot of the people that we just showed in those clips for your dangerous approach to this dangerous pandemic. A year later, almost, what do you see?
RON DESANTIS, GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA: Well, Lauren, Florida, in terms of coronavirus, we have less coronavirus per capita in terms of deaths than the national average and we have the second oldest population in the United States, we have less cases per capita than the national average. And yet, we have all schools open, we have all businesses able to operate, everyone has a right to work, our unemployment below the national average, our tax revenue is much higher than expectations. And so I think what we’ve learned is two things. One, when you deal with a pandemic, it doesn’t mean that every other issue in society simply goes away. You have to deal with folks ability to earn a living, to educate their kids, and mental health and well being. But what we’ve also learned is these lockdowns on their own just don’t work. Even if you didn’t care about economy, even if he didn’t care about education, they don’t work to stop the spread. And I think the results in Florida and elsewhere show that. People want to come here, because they know we’re a free state. And I think that the facts have borne us out to have made the right decisions.
INGRAHAM: I want to move on to what happened in Manatee County where I think you offered 3,000 vaccines to mostly I believe it was mostly to the senior community. But for that your critics lashed out at you take a look.
[START VIDEO]
MISTY SERVIA: The optics are really, really bad. If we were going to pick and choose who was going to be vaccinated ahead of everyone else, I would hope it would go to the underserved populations … you’re taking the whitest demographic, the richest demographic in Manatee County, and putting them ahead of everyone else.
[END VIDEO]
INGRAHAM: Governor, it’s racist to follow the science and vaccinate the most vulnerable population. I don’t know how to understand this. Now we’re checking boxes of ethnicity and color. I thought it was about the science saving lives.
DESANTIS: Well, look, we were the first state to reject the CDC guidance, which wasn’t gonna put seniors first and we said no, no, we’re putting seniors first. I was criticized by the same types of folks for putting seniors first. Well guess what, Florida seniors are glad that we put them first. Today’s event where we have the 3,000 seniors, that was over and above what that county had been getting, we saw that there was, that we needed to get more seniors in that particular county. So we worked with some of the local neighborhoods and said, where’s a lot of seniors? Where can we go in and knock out several thousand very quickly to get those numbers up? And I can tell you, Laura, there were an awful lot of very happy seniors there today. There are a lot of smiles on their faces. People were able to get vaccines. This is one of many things that we’re doing to put seniors first in Florida. We’re not going to stop until every senior that wants a shot gets a shot. And we’re not going to let some of the naysayers slow us down.
INGRAHAM: Governor DeSantis, breaking news tonight, the FBI, the US Attorney’s Office also are reportedly investigating Governor Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes and it’s apparently in its very early stages. But your thoughts on again, criticism you got and the praise Cuomo got from the likes of Dr. Fauci.
DESANTIS: Well, if you go back to March, I was getting criticized for not closing the beaches, which you don’t close beaches for respiratory virus. So, I was right on that. But the media totally ignored how the governors were handling the nursing homes. We did an order right at the beginning saying hospitals cannot discharge COVID positive nursing home residents back to nursing homes. By doing that we saved hundreds if not thousands of lives. And so we made the right decision at the outset. And again, the facts have borne us out over these many months.
INGRAHAM: And Governor Finally I know you’re very close to Rush Limbaugh. He praised you and his final show. I know how much he admired you and he had great hopes for your political future. Your thoughts tonight.
DESANTIS: He’s the Babe Ruth of radio. He would have been great in radio Laura, even without the conservatives, and he was just that talented. Obviously he’s a conservative icon up there with people like Scalia and Reagan and Buckley, and he was a personal friend. You know him. He’s a warm and decent man, and we’re really proud that he was in the Southern Command down in Florida for so long. We’re gonna miss him tremendously. He was a great guy.
INGRAHAM: He was ahead of the curve in leaving New York City and coming to Florida. I remember he told me, what was it 20 years ago. Ingraham, why are you paying the taxes in DC? Move to Florida. I’m like, ah, who wants to go to Florida … now he’s proven once again, how sorry.