The governor has additionally taken steps to shore up his political standing round his dealing with of the pandemic, summoning reporters to the State Capitol on Wednesday to blast — full with a slide-show presentation titled “FACTS VS. SMEARS” — a report in CBS News’s “60 Minutes” that didn’t have adequate proof to show a pay-to-play dynamic between Mr. DeSantis’s administration and Covid-19 vaccine distribution for white and rich Floridians.

His report on the virus is, in reality, combined. By some measures, Florida has had an average performance in a pandemic that’s not but over. Yet his choices helped preserve hospitals from changing into overwhelmed with coronavirus sufferers. He highlights that he helped companies survive and allowed kids to go to highschool.

What his critics can’t neglect, nevertheless, is how he resisted some key public well being pointers. An op-ed article endorsing masks that his employees drafted beneath his title in mid-July was by no means accredited by the governor for publication. The restrictions he now dismisses as ineffective, reminiscent of native masks mandates and curfews, which consultants say in reality labored, have been imposed most often by Democratic mayors with whom he hardly speaks.

Given the methods individuals admire or despise him, nevertheless, the nuances appear irrelevant.

He infuriates passionate critics who imagine he operates shrewdly to are likely to his personal pursuits. They worry that strategy contributed to complicated public well being messages, vaccine favoritism for the rich and the deaths of about 34,000 Floridians. “DeathSantis,” they name him. (Mr. DeSantis declined repeated interview requests for this text.)

But at virtually each flip, Mr. DeSantis has seized the criticism as a chance to turn into an avatar for nationwide conservatives who relish the governor’s combativeness. He can rating factors that his potential Republican rivals within the minority in Washington, together with Mr. Rubio and Senator Rick Scott, his predecessor as governor, can’t.

“He’s taken the wrong approach on some of our most critical issues, Covid being first and foremost, yet within Republican political circles, he is considered to be the front-runner for the White House,” stated former Representative David Jolly, an ex-Republican who’s flirting with a doable run for governor. “He’s worked his hand perfectly.”



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