Rick Scott tells governors to stop ‘bragging and blaming’ in virus fight

Sen. Rick Scott urged governors, of New York and presumably other states, to stop “bragging and blaming” about their performance in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Scott, who appeared on the Fox News Channel Tuesday night, addressed New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo‘s assertion earlier in the day that the federal coronavirus response was a “colossal blunder.”

“No one should brag that they’ve done a good job yet,” Scott said. “We haven’t beaten the coronavirus yet. We still have a lot of work to do. We don’t have a vaccine yet.”

“I know it sounds like we’re closer. I’m optimistic,” Scott added, “but we clearly aren’t where we need to be on testing.”

Scott also addressed the situation in Florida, including recent spikes in death rates.

“We haven’t beaten it. We’re not done yet,” Scott said.

“I think everybody ought to take a breather and just keep informing people and quit bragging that one place is better than another,” Scott said. “Let’s quit bragging and blaming. Let’s get the work done.”

Scott’s vision of the work to be done seems to diverge from that of Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Senator, who is also DeSantis’ immediate predecessor as the state’s chief executive, took issue with the decision to curtail state testing last week with Hurricane Isaias looming.

“You shut down a testing center, you just slow down information,” Scott said Thursday on the Fox News Rundown.

He also zinged DeSantis, though not by name, for the Governor’s messaging strategy, which typically involves one public event a day.

“When a hurricane was bearing down on my state,” Scott noted, “I was giving a press conference every few hours.”

While Scott has said, regarding the virus fight, that “in the middle of a crisis you shouldn’t just be criticizing everybody,” he’s found a way to levy those criticisms nonetheless.