Ron DeSantis backs away from installing RFK to run CDC, FDA
Image via AP.

DeSantis AP SC
Kennedy could be on a 'task force' to 'hold people accountable for COVID' though.

Ron DeSantis isn’t ready to tap Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after all.

Instead, the Florida Governor and 2024 presidential candidate envisions the Democrat anti-vaxxer as part of a “bipartisan task force” to “hold them accountable.”

“He wouldn’t be the head of CDC. That would be a doctor or a Ph.D.,” DeSantis said, such as a Jay Bhattacharya.

“But I’m going to have, probably, a task force to go in there to hold people accountable for COVID, hold people accountable for what things are happening. So it would be more in that role that I’d want to get a bipartisan group of people together who understand the process. Understand the federal government’s COVID response was a disaster that hurt people that hurt this country,” DeSantis told interviewer Megyn Kelly.

During an interview earlier this week with Outkick, DeSantis lauded RFK, continuing praise for the Democratic presidential candidate.

“Yes, the medical stuff. I’m very good on that,” DeSantis said. “So that does appeal to me. … In that regard, it’s like, ‘OK, if you’re President, you know, sic him on the FDA, if he’d be willing to serve, or sic him on CDC.’”

DeSantis told Kelly Friday that his enthusiasm for Kennedy in that role was misinterpreted, given the framing of the question in the very friendly Outkick interview was about whether Kennedy could be DeSantis’ Vice President. The Governor told Kelly there was “chatter on our side about doing that,” though he didn’t specify from where that chatter comes.

Kennedy, whose vaccine skepticism predates DeSantis’ pandemic-driven interest, recently claimed COVID-19 was “ethnically targeted” to spare Jewish and Chinese people. He has since backpedaled, saying he should have been “more careful” with his words.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. He writes for the New York Post and National Review also, with previous work in the American Conservative and Washington Times and a 15+ year run as a columnist in Folio Weekly. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


11 comments

  • Michael K

    July 28, 2023 at 3:49 pm

    Poor little Rhonda is Miss Interpreted.

  • Thomas Kaspar

    July 28, 2023 at 3:59 pm

    Zzzzz

  • Thomas Kaspar

    July 28, 2023 at 4:00 pm

    AntiDeSantis political spam

    • RonBeGone

      July 28, 2023 at 11:24 pm

      Haha. No need when he generates so much damaging content every time he opens his trap.

  • Tjb

    July 28, 2023 at 4:34 pm

    He should have picked Willie Nelson over Kennedy for the job,

  • tom palmer

    July 28, 2023 at 4:34 pm

    Has he lost his mind to even suggest that?

  • The New Earl Pitts "Hey Hes One Of Us" American

    July 28, 2023 at 4:54 pm

    Good afternoon America,
    I, Earl Pitts American, told y’all we were just messing with the left on that whole RFK thing.

    To shift gears to something dear to my heart:

    Here is a serious issue which I, Earl Pitts American, am very concerned about:
    America I have noticed a lot of you beloved citizens are failing to take my, Earl Pitts American’s, great knowledge shares on political issues as being the gospel truth, as being the gold standard, as being the closest thing to life sustaining political Mannah from Heaven above that anyone will ever experience.
    I know it rankles a lot of leftist readers pride here at our beloved host F. P. to always be wrong while virtually sitting in the same virtual chat space as me, Earl Pitts American, who is always correct.
    So to honor and build trust with my fellow posters here at F. P. I, Earl Pitts American, will try a new approach which I have given the acromim EFU which denotes “Earl €ffs Up”.
    So my fans look forward to this:
    From time to time I, Earl Pitts American, will intentionally post some information that is wrong, stupid, or wrong and stupid.
    That way all my fellow posters will start looking at me as just one of the guys. Y’all will start talking amoung yourself like this:
    “Yeah that guy Earl is allright but sometimes hes wrong, stupid, or wrong and stupid … but hey arent we all sometimes”?
    So look forward to the New Earl Pitts “Hey Hes One Of Us” American.
    Thank you America,
    EPA

  • Joe

    July 28, 2023 at 5:03 pm

    NEVER BACK DOWN, except sometimes

  • Dont Say FLA

    July 28, 2023 at 5:32 pm

    Rhonda can appoint RFK Jr to be a Moms For Liberty today. Put your money, well, put Florida’s money where your mouth is, Rhonda. Beg Steve Bannon to install RFK as the lead Mom for Liberty.

  • Michael K

    July 28, 2023 at 6:19 pm

    Never.

    Back down.

  • RonBeGone

    July 28, 2023 at 11:27 pm

    Bobble head flip flopper in his last campaign days. Keeps eating his own feet. Should put the boots back on.

Comments are closed.


#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, William March, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Jesse Scheckner, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704