Team DeSantis reminds critics the governor called for Fed audit a decade ago

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political team is pushing back on rhetoric that the governor is just now becoming critical of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Though not responding with specific names, former member of the governor’s office and campaign Christina Pushaw posted a rebuke on social media after 2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy mocked DeSantis for “watching & slowly learning” with Federal Reserve-critical rhetoric.

“Glad Ron is watching & slowly learning. Exact same message, verbatim, one month later: the pattern continues again,” Ramaswamy, a Republican frequently critical of DeSantis, said.

Ramaswamy referenced a clip from March 20 of him arguing the Federal Reserve has been the “source” of U.S. economic downfalls “for the last 25 years.”

“They’re the root cause of this whole thing. Yet here we are hanging on to their words,” he said. “It’s just a question of market participants looking at how much more damage they possibly are actually going to do.”

Pushaw called out “the media and partisan critics” acting like DeSantis’ recent comments critical of the Federal Reserve “is a new trend.”

“Governor DeSantis was already calling to audit the Fed back in 2014, when he was a Congressman (and founding member of the Freedom Caucus),” she said. “The media and partisan critics acting like this is a new trend are just showing their ignorance of his record.”

Her remarks were in reference to a Sept. 17, 2014 tweet from DeSantis when he was a member of Congress, supporting an audit of the Federal Reserve.

“The House just passed a bill to audit the Fed by a vote of 333-92. Harry Reid, the ball is in your court,” he said.

On March 12, 2013, DeSantis pushed the “Federal Reserve Transparency Act” and used the hashtag “#AuditTheFed.”

DeSantis slammed the agency for its suggestion that it is “ideal” for such an authorization for issuing a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, to come from a “specific authorizing law.”

“It is not merely ‘ideal’ that major changes in policy receive specific authorization from Congress; it is constitutionally required,” DeSantis said. “Unaccountable institutions cannot impose a CBDC on Americans. They will tell us that CBDC won’t be abused but we are wise enough to know better.”

“This wolf comes as a wolf.”

In March, DeSantis called for a total ban on CBDC in Florida.

DeSantis has not announced he is running for president in 2024, but is expected to make a decision after the Florida Legislature wraps up its session in May.