DeSantis Takes Aim at Trump for Deferring to Fauci on Covid Policy

Florida governor Ron DeSantis on Saturday criticized former president Trump deferring to Dr. Anthony Fauci while shaping his administration’s response to Covid in the early days of the pandemic.

“A leader must have the confidence to stand all alone if need be,” DeSantis said in a speech for the Utah GOP Convention on Saturday. “And so for us, as I got into office, COVID presented that situation for us because we were in a situation – the third-largest state in the country – one of the highest percentage of elderly, economy based on tourism, which we needed to travel to continue.”

Amid the uncertainty of the pandemic, the Trump administration elevated Fauci to lead the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

“So, this situation was an existential threat to our state, but I made the judgment. Leaders take the bull by the horns and make the decisions for themselves. They don’t subcontract out their leadership to health bureaucrats like Dr. Fauci,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis bucked the Trump administration’s public-health guidance relatively early on in the pandemic, reopening schools and businesses, and blocking localities from implementing vaccine mandates. However, this past February, Trump accused DeSantis of “trying to rewrite history” on his handling of the pandemic in Florida.