Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis revealed that one of his biggest regrets in office was not speaking “much louder” in March 2020, when then-President Donald Trump advised citizens to stay home to help slow down the spread of the coronavirus.
DeSantis, who is considered a close ally of Trump, revealed that he was involved in the early days of the Trump administration’s pandemic response and advised the President. DeSantis claims he was surprised when Trump ultimately decided to go into lockdown, a decision that led to much of the US economy shutting down.
“I never thought in February, early March, that (coronavirus) would lead to locking down the country,” the Republican governor told the hosts of the conservative podcast “Ruthless” during an episode recorded earlier this week. “I just didn’t. I didn’t think that was on the radar.”
During the podcast, DeSantis blamed “people like” Dr. Anthony Fauci for advising Trump to shut down the country. Dr. Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, was part of a coronavirus response team led by former Vice President Mike Pence and included other public health experts.
It’s apparently not the first time DeSantis questioned actions taken by the Trump administration to slow the spread of the virus. In November, DeSantis revealed that he questioned whether banning flights from China, the epicenter of the initial outbreak, was an effective strategy.
“I was probably the first governor in January of 2020 to call for travel restrictions from China. I supported President Trump when he did that,” DeSantis explained. “But we have to take a step back and acknowledge that those travel restrictions just didn’t work.”
