Far-left American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten panicked on social media on Wednesday afternoon over merchandise sold by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ re-election campaign.
DeSantis’ team introduced a new line of merchandise to raise money for his campaign and some of the gear included the phrase, “Don’t Fauci My Florida,” a reference to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s widely criticized and often changing policy positions.
Weingarten, a controversial figure that leads an organization accused of influencing the Biden administration’s CDC on school reopenings, responded to the tweet, claiming without evidence that millions of Floridians would die as a result of DeSantis’ policies.
“Disgusting. Millions of Floridians are going to die for Ron DeSantis’ ignorance and he’s choosing to profit from it,” Weingarten claimed. “He doesn’t care about Floridians; he cares about furthering his own cruel agenda.”
DeSantis Press Secretary Christina Pushaw blasted Weingarten in a statement to The Daily Wire, saying, “Is Randi Weingarten’s ridiculous claim that selling a koozie will lead to ‘millions’ of Floridians dying an example of Critical Math Theory?”
“It’s terrifying that the fate of any child’s education is in the hands of someone so incredibly ignorant,” Pushaw added.
A recent column in the New York Post detailed controversies involving Weingarten, a purveyor of debunked conspiracy theories, throughout the pandemic:
- “Last September, as schools across the country were trying to open, Weingarten could be counted on to oppose any such move. ‘If community spread is too high . . . if you don’t have the infrastructure of testing, and if you don’t have the safeguards that prevent the spread of viruses in the school, we believe that you cannot reopen in person,’ Weingarten said.”
- “In February, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was finally going to issue guidance urging full reopening of in-person schooling, the AFT successfully lobbied for language that kept schools closed. The next month, when the CDC finally did the sane thing and changed its social-distancing guideline for schools to 3 feet (from 6), Weingarten wrote a letter questioning the change and demanding yet more ‘safety’ concessions.”
- “When challenged about success stories — such as Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis resisted union bullying and made sure schools across the state opened for full-time learning — Weingarten regurgitated the oft-debunked conspiracy theory about the Sunshine State somehow hiding its real COVID data.”
- “Who can forget her interview with Jewish Telegraphic Agency in March, in which Weingarten lied that ‘virtually every school district in New York state and in Connecticut is reopened, many of them have reopened in New Jersey’? In fact, Gotham middle and high schools ended the school year still mostly closed, while elementary schools would only open full-time at the end of April, weeks after the interview. Several districts in New Jersey didn’t open for in-person school this year at all. In the same interview, Weingarten took aim at Jews who dared question why schools were still closed. Weingarten called them ‘the ownership class.’ When casual Marxism, with bizarre anti-Semitic undertones, makes it into classrooms, it isn’t difficult to see where it originates.”
Other notable reactions to Weingarten’s baseless claim included:
This mutant heads a union of the people who teach your children. Destroy all teachers unions. https://t.co/9UTN6OvUIo
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) July 14, 2021
This tweet is functionally a max out donation to DeSantis. Thank you madam president. https://t.co/ntKchT0P6p
— Ben Williamson (@_WilliamsonBen) July 14, 2021
Florida’s COVID death rate is lower than the national average, and unlike the Governor of New York, we don’t fudge the numbers. Meanwhile, Randi Weingarten ruined the education of millions of kids by keeping them out of school for more than a year based on a conspiracy theory https://t.co/yfdLCk5Kq4
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) July 14, 2021
Millions?
More like TENS OF BILLIONS!#innumerate #panic— Geoffrey Miller (@primalpoly) July 14, 2021
the cruel agenda was teachers unions keeping schools closed and holding children's educations hostage for over a year
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) July 14, 2021
https://twitter.com/dangainor/status/1415443403236679683
The teachers unions coming out against DeSantis will just get him that much more over as a babyface. They are clueless about the nuclear heat they have with the American audience.
Remember – all politics is kayfabe.
— Jordan Carpenter (@jmcarpenter_) July 14, 2021
Millions! Randi hopefully taught neither math nor science https://t.co/zmolDf9Vdc
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 14, 2021
This person should be deplatformed tbh https://t.co/r9jeAaKH82
— Jonah Bennett 🌐🚀 (@BennettJonah) July 14, 2021
All of her tweets make perfect sense once you realize everything she says is an example of Freudian projection https://t.co/6PttkYLhOz
— Noah Pollak (@NoahPollak) July 14, 2021
Florida made teachers unions look bad by reopening schools https://t.co/QkBMPf8Kx2
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) July 14, 2021
https://twitter.com/ZaidJilani/status/1415441911742148609
It should worry people that this person is working with the CDC to write nationwide school health policy https://t.co/nPotw3EYfD
— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) July 14, 2021
MILLIONS says America's favorite cartoon villain https://t.co/JHoUFZW1Ow
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) July 14, 2021
https://twitter.com/Boomieleaks/status/1415450788395163648
Randi the communist liar: https://t.co/LpkTLpRznz
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) July 14, 2021
I’ll take that bet. 100 bucks that millions of Floridians don’t die from these policies. https://t.co/SUjJNZJKlL
— Michael Brendan Dougherty (@michaelbd) July 14, 2021
https://twitter.com/TrumpJew2/status/1415453604559867914