Gov. Ron DeSantis didn't seem phased by Dr. Anthony Fauci calling him a "total jerk" and a "complete disgrace" in diary entries during the coronavirus pandemic from the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) during the coronavirus pandemic while speaking to Bill Hemmer on Fox News' America's Newsroom this week.
In fact, Gov. Ron DeSantis took it as a compliment.
"Well, to the contrary, I think those are badges of honor to have him attacking me, and he was also doing it publicly," DeSantis said. "I remember early in Covid, I did an order to mandate schools be open, he was attacking us. He would come down to Florida and do hits on local news, saying you know that we were doing it wrong. He wanted to impose mandates on people at the local level, I blocked those governments from doing it."
Gov. DeSantis also reminded viewers of Dr. Fauci's measures on daily activities.
"He would attack Florida for having our beaches open, for example, or Memorial Day parties that people were doing, and that's what happens in Florida," DeSantis said. "People go out and enjoy the scenery, but yet he was very quiet when you had those George Floyd protests. He wasn't talking about those people being locked down. He was very mute about it."
Dr. Fauci led the NIAID from 1984 to 2022, including under President Joe Biden during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which lasted from March 2020 to May 2023. Fauci was also a key member of the Covid-19 task force under President Donald Trump.
DeSanti's was never a big fan, arguing Fauci's was "practicing political science rather than evidence-based medicine" during the early onset of the virus. The governor also criticized the media for giving Fauci "imbued" formal authority to talk about the virus on a daily basis.
Ironically, Fauci repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right when asked by Congress on Capitol Hill about the origins of the disease during a hearing last week.
"The diaries, I think, really validate what I saw early on. This is a guy that was drinking his own Kool-Aid," DeSantis said. "He was venerated by the media. I think he liked the fact that he had a lot of this informal power when he was issuing these recommendations and telling governors and mayors to do some of the draconian things that were actually done."
"It had a really negative effect on a lot of societies throughout this country, and I would say we don't want a 'Fauci Florida, a Fauci City,' or a Fauci State,' basically was a dystopia where you had businesses reeling, people's liberties curtailed, and kids left on the sideline unable to access education," DeSantis added.
