Andrew Gillum criticizes Governor’s reopening plan, says Ron DeSantis ‘decided which lives matter to him’

GILLUM VS. DESANTIS
Former Democratic candidate for Governor reemerges with policy critiques.

The 2018 race for Florida Governor isn’t history after all, as the defeated Democrat emerged Monday to slam Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ decision to move the state into Phase 3 reopening.

Former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum issued a full-throated criticism of DeSantis Monday saying the “Governor of Florida has decided which lives matter to him.”

People of color, seniors and those with pre-existing conditions are more likely to die from #Covid. Wear a mask, socially distance, avoid crowds and large indoor gatherings,” Gillum advised his nearly 620,200 followers on Twitter.

Gillum, who has returned to the public eye recently after a scandal-driven sabbatical, linked to a critique of Florida’s move toward normalcy from Dr. Anthony Fauci, among the more cautious voices from President Donald Trump‘s Coronavirus Task Force.

Fauci singled out Florida as “concerning” in Monday morning comments to ABC News’s “Good Morning America.”

“Well that is very concerning to me, I mean, we have always said that, myself and Dr. Deborah Birx, who is the coordinator of the task force, that that is something we really need to be careful about, because when you’re dealing with community spread, and you have the kind of congregate setting where people get together, particularly without masks, you’re really asking for trouble. Now’s the time actually to double down a bit, and I don’t mean close.”

“When I say that, people get concerned that we’re talking about shutting down,” he said. “We’re not talking about shutting anything down, we’re talking about common sense type of public health measures that we’ve been talking about all along.”

DeSantis does not seem inclined to take much more advice from Gillum, Fauci, or anyone else who would fetter Florida’s economy going forward.

In a gloves-off performance for a national Fox News audience Friday night, DeSantis castigated critics of the move forward as “ignorant about Florida.”

“Lockdowns should be off the table,” DeSantis said, noting a now familiar argument that they “exacerbate” other social problems.

“We never closed down over the summer,” DeSantis said. “We actually had, of course, beaches, theme parks, retail operating at 100%. We had sports, summer camps over the summer. We have over 1.1 million students in face-to-face instruction for K-12. We have college students that are on campus. We’ve had big events, college football with fans. NFL football with fans. We had a NASCAR race with 30,000 people.”

“So we’ve been open. The final piece of the puzzle was this capacity limitation on restaurants at 50%. And so that was the announcement … kind of brought that in for a landing.”

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


16 comments

  • Sonja Fitch

    September 28, 2020 at 3:29 pm

    Glad to see you Gillum. Hope you are healing. Yes Duffus Desantis perfect summation death cult master! Vote Blue vote Democrat up and down ballot!

  • John Coughlin

    September 28, 2020 at 4:10 pm

    Sorry, but I respectfully disagree with Andrew Gillum.

    DeSantis disrespects all lives of Floridians, and places politics and money above Floridians.
    That is reality here in the sunshine state….

    We can do better.

  • Pamela Bickett

    September 28, 2020 at 6:33 pm

    Andrew Gollum is a drug addict. He didn’t even care about his own life. Why would we care what he has to say?

  • Frankie M.

    September 28, 2020 at 6:56 pm

    Gonna land this plane in the St. Johns

  • freedom of speech

    September 28, 2020 at 7:11 pm

    censorship

  • Keeler

    September 28, 2020 at 8:25 pm

    Andrew Gillum, the guy who was found naked face down in his own vomit after making love to a male stripper. The family man whose advice we should trust. More race baiting.On September 10, CDC published new infection rate fatality ratios for C-19. This is people who die from the disease once infected. Remember they first said 2-3 per 100(2-3%) would die once infected.

    People aged 0-19 one in 33000
    People aged 20-49 one in 5000
    People aged 50-69 one in 200
    People over 70 one in 19

    Anyone like Gillum advocating lock downs is practicing voodoo not science.

  • Laura

    September 29, 2020 at 6:54 am

    Andrew Gillum has proven to all of us that he cares nothing about anyone’s life including his own and those of his immediate family members. People who live in glass houses and smoke drugs from glass pipes probably should not be casting stones.

  • Charlotte Greenbarg

    September 29, 2020 at 7:19 am

    Perennial troll Fitch is a one note failure 🤪😜😂. Gillum? Really?🤮

  • Patrick Henry

    September 29, 2020 at 10:59 am

    Gilliam? Who was under an FBI investigation as mayor for corruption during his gubernatorial bid? Gillum gave over a million $$$ in Leon County taxpayer money to his former lobbyist boyfriend and accepted illegal gifts, investigated for countless ethics violations of money, luxury vacations, trips, tickets to Hamilton, etc. He has a wife and three beautiful children but meets three men, including a male escort for sex In Miami and does meth illegally during this tryst? Is found naked in his own vomit….Why would anyone care what Andrew Gillum thinks? His judgment is severely impaired. Gillum violated his vows to his wife and family and disgraced them. He needs to focus on his own healing and stop making absurd comments. See Sweden Mr. Gillum. Gov. DeSantis has done a great job has been overtly cautious In FL.
    Gillum represents the party of Joe Biden, a 47 year corrupt career politician.

  • Nikki

    September 29, 2020 at 1:21 pm

    Andrew, you took a powder back in March.
    Please give it a rest.

    I’ve got this!

  • Marconi

    September 29, 2020 at 2:53 pm

    Gilliam is held in the same low regard as Hillary. Just go away already!

  • Sonja Fitch

    September 29, 2020 at 10:41 pm

    To the folks that are soooooo perfect! Duffus Desantis is a death cult puppet of sociopath scum trump! Give me some one anyone that admits failure and change instead of a stupid imbecile and a trump puppet ANY DAY! Vote Democrat up and down ballot!

  • gary

    September 30, 2020 at 2:20 am

    Go away Soros boy!

  • MAGA MAN

    September 30, 2020 at 11:13 am

    So Gillum has a meth fueled breakdown with a dead male prostitute found in the same hotel room because the stress of the gubernatorial race defeat, but he’d handle the covid? You all are DELUSIONAL and silly.

    This clown showed his true colors, not fit to lead – not even fit to have this drivel wrote about him.

  • Jim

    October 1, 2020 at 12:40 am

    Well,Gillum would certainly know about openings.

  • Big foot

    October 8, 2020 at 2:32 pm

    Some people would be better off keeping there views too them selfs &stay in the closet

Comments are closed.


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