DeSantis promises to not turn the country to Fauci: ‘Anthony, you’re fired’
FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (FLV) – Speaking at a 2024 campaign event, Gov. Ron DeSantis again differentiated himself from former President Donald Trump’s administration, referencing the elevation of Dr. Anthony Fauci during the coronavirus pandemic.
“When I’m president, you will never see me turning over my office to Dr. Fauci,” DeSantis proclaimed to the Florida crowd.
“You don’t protect Fauci. You don’t coddle Fauci. You bring somebody like Fauci in, you sit them down and you say, ‘Anthony, you are fired.'”
Trump announced Fauci would serve on his Coronavirus Task Force in January 2020. Fauci then went on to participate in regular press briefings on the federal response to the pandemic.
Trump’s elevation of Fauci during his administration has been a target of criticism by the DeSantis 2024 campaign, which launched in late-May.
After his campaign launch, DeSantis quickly pounced on Fauci’s position in the Trump administration.
“I think [Trump] did great for three years. But when he turned the country over to Fauci in March of 2020, that destroyed millions of people’s lives,” the governor said.
On the coronavirus pandemic, DeSantis argued “particularly at the federal level,” there was a “catastrophic response.”
Then, in June, his campaign featured an artificial intelligence-generated image of Fauci and Trump kissing and embracing.
The video was targeting and criticizing Trump for not firing Fauci during his time as president – rather, including Fauci in the task force against COVID-19 and placing him in front of the press as a figurehead for the federal response to the pandemic.
“Donald Trump became a household name by FIRING countless people *on television,*” the DeSantis War Room tweeted. “But when it came to Fauci…”
Even before DeSantis’ campaign for president, in March, he proclaimed he would have fired Fauci had he been in the Oval Office.
“I would have fired somebody like Fauci,” DeSantis said at the time. “I think he got way too big for his britches, and I think he did a lot of damage.”
The governor will participate alongside other primary candidates at the first GOP primary debate in Milwaukee on Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET, hosted by Fox News.
