Marco Rubio attaboys Ron DeSantis’ anti-Fauci swag
Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio.

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The Senator wanted Fauci fired in June.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. Ron DeSantis appear to share the same sense of humor.

On Wednesday’s “Fox and Friends,” Rubio weighed in on new promotional materials from DeSantis’ reelection effort, including “Don’t Fauci My Florida” beer koozies and T-shirts released as the delta variant of COVID-19 threatens the limits of Florida hospitals.

“You want to know what I think? I think it’s funny,” Rubio raved about the campaign props targeting Dr. Anthony Fauci, the controversial point man for the nation’s coronavirus response.

“I think it’s great. There’s this notion out there that Fauci is somehow beyond reproach. Fauci has openly and enthusiastically engaged himself in the political debate of this country. He has no problem going on every media outlet, wagging his finger at everybody, accusing anyone who doesn’t agree with him (of) being backwards and wanting to kill people,” Rubio said.

“He’s had no problem being a national celebrity and appearing on the cover of magazines,” the famously media-averse Rubio added. “That means he’s not immune to sarcasm. And he’s not immune to criticism.”

For Rubio, these lates comments continue a summer of criticism of Fauci. In June, the Senator urged President Joe Biden to fire the Director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, suggesting the doctor was “getting high on his own supply.”

“He’s gotten on the cover of magazines. He’s become this national figure. He enjoys this celebrity that’s come with it and this role he’s played, almost like a super-governmental role, this authority that everybody has to listen to. I think he’s gotten, you know, high on his own supply a little bit,” Rubio said on “The Story with Martha MacCallum.”

DeSantis, who also has been known to brag about his national platform, expressed his own concerns about Faucian overexposure early this summer. The Governor likened Fauci to Marie Antoinette after Fauci appeared on a digital cover of InStyle magazine.

“Obviously, he does so many interviews that it was pretty clear to me that after a short time that this was about himself and his own image,” DeSantis snarked on Fox News. “For me, you look at that magazine cover where he’s lounging by the pool with the sunglasses on, you know, right in the midst of a pandemic. It was almost like a let them eat cake moment for all the people who were chafing under his lockdowns, and yet he seemed to be having the time of his life.”

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


24 comments

  • zhombre

    July 14, 2021 at 10:39 am

    His Eminence Cardinal Fauci will not be pleased, not pleased at all. He may issue a stern denunciation. Unless of course he gets a cut of the money.

    • Tjb

      July 14, 2021 at 11:18 am

      Remember when our former President stated , “ The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.” on Feb 26,2020.
      640,000 USA Covid 19 death later… what was Trump high on when he made this statement? Maybe the slogan should be “Don’t Trump My American “. It is sad the our Florida Senators are mocking Dr. Fauci and making COVID-19 a political issue and not a health issue.

      • J

        July 19, 2021 at 12:38 pm

        Remember when Trump was called a racist and xenophobic when he restricted travel because of the virus. Remember when Fauci the fraud lied about masks and still lies about their effectiveness. Remember when fauci posed for magazine covers and threw out pitches during a pandemic?

  • Micah

    July 14, 2021 at 12:46 pm

    “…as the delta variant of COVID-19 threatens the limits of Florida hospitals.” Yeah…I’m going to need to see some evidence to support that. Otherwise, it’s just media fearmongering.

    • J

      July 19, 2021 at 12:38 pm

      Amen

  • Tom Palmer

    July 14, 2021 at 1:14 pm

    The Dr. Fauci fixation by Dr. DeSantis and Dr. Rubio seems childish.

    • J

      July 19, 2021 at 12:39 pm

      At least they’ve been right about the over hyped pandemic, unlike fauci who doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground…

  • Frankie M.

    July 14, 2021 at 8:03 pm

    Ignorance celebrating ignorance for the sake of pandering to the rubes. I’m waiting for the next rally where they burn books and disparage higher education. Won’t be long now. #culturewars #stayhard

  • Sonja Fitch

    July 15, 2021 at 6:27 am

    Sorry Nazi Rick. But Nazi duffus Desantis and Nazi little Marco are now getting into the perversion of letting people die for money and LIES! Looks like both have sunk even lower than you, Laughing at the deaths and abuse and chaos caused by Covid and their willingness to bs facts for their goptrump cult leader! May all 3 of you go to hell!

    • zhombre

      July 15, 2021 at 6:46 am

      You and the idiot Frankie M above represent abysmal and vicious stupidity. It is painful to read your degenerate, ignorant, scurrilous tripe.

      • Ocean Joe

        July 15, 2021 at 10:06 am

        No pain, no gain. Sonja welcome back and pay no attention to Z. He is bright and humorous, sometimes makes a great point, but seems a bit at a loss when confronted with the fact that we should rely on an epidemiologist’s advice when dealing with an epidemic. Trump searched until he found somebody to support his kooky ideas…a RADIOLOGIST…chock full of bad ideas. Remember?
        OK Z, tear me to pieces!

        • zhombre

          July 16, 2021 at 7:36 am

          His Eminence Cardinal Fauci is a consummate bureaucrat more than a scientist and there are a number of credible people asserting what you call ‘kooky ideas’ about the origin of COVID, the efficacy of vaccinations, and the general mishandling of lockdowns by various government officials. I will not bother to tear you to pieces. Waste of time. You are smarter than Frankie M but that is setting the bar low and hardly a compliment.

      • Tom Palmer

        July 15, 2021 at 10:14 pm

        I thought Trump was a degenerate. Our Philanderer in Chief.

        • zhombre

          July 16, 2021 at 7:33 am

          Bill Clinton earned the Philanderer title back in the Nineties.

        • J

          July 19, 2021 at 12:40 pm

          You know he’s not in office anymore, right? move along…

  • Beth

    July 15, 2021 at 11:08 am

    Not surprised that two ignorant, immature, idiots like Rubio and DeSantis would mock the people that died from Covid under their watch. I’m sure their surviving family members think it’s a riot. It would be difficult to find two more despicable human beings right now.

  • Frankie M.

    July 15, 2021 at 10:24 pm

    I have a potential business opportunity for some enterprising, culture war-loving mouthbreather out there. T-shirts, mugs, hats, flags, etc that read…Don’t DuhSantis my Duuuvaaal! See what I did there? #stayhard

  • Tom J.

    July 16, 2021 at 1:05 pm

    The Republican Part is no longer the Right to Life Party and should never make claim to that again. Locally, Florida Republicans Rubio, Scott, DeSantis ignore the deaths–past and future–of their very own followers who listen to the anti-Fauci anti-vaccination crap spewed by these craven politicians. They yuk it up for the cash donors who believe what they hear from these “leaders” rather than follow what these “leaders” have done: gotten their own precious asses vaccinated.

  • JoAnne

    July 16, 2021 at 4:23 pm

    Don’t democrat my Florida would be more appropriate given the comments here. Hopefully a bunch of transplants who will be leaving soon. Fauci has zero credibility left even though we are supposed to believe he is the King of Science. Maybe he is the King of the kind of Science that has no evidence to back it up. Just make it up as you go as long as you get on TV. And don’t forget to double mask everyone.

  • Tom Palmer

    July 16, 2021 at 6:38 pm

    Yeah, Dr DeSantis is the King of Science. Let us all bow down and bend over.

    • zhombre

      July 17, 2021 at 11:52 am

      DeSantis actually studied the literature and the facts on COVID which is why he prioritized the most vulnerable, the elderly in nursing homes (in contrast to Cuomo in NY, who killed numbers of nursing home residents). You and the rest of these cicadas can disparage the man all you please and shout Nazi until your puny voice gives out. All you accomplish is displaying your partisan ignorance and boobishness.

Comments are closed.


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