A.G. Gancarski
Gov. Ron DeSantis isn’t a fan of President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardons.
That’s particularly true when it comes to Anthony Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the former chief medical advisor to the President, and the “little elf” that DeSantis wanted to “chuck across the Potomac” two years ago.
“One of Biden’s greatest abuses of power was the forcing of mRNA shots by executive fiat (which Florida successfully blocked). Now, on his way out the door, Biden pardons the chief henchman of that and so many other abuses. The swamp protects its own,” DeSantis posted to X.
Yet the second-term Republican, who is a former member of Congress in his own right, doesn’t hold the legislative branch harmless.
DeSantis said “one of the reasons bureaucrats behave badly in the first place is because Congress has failed to wield its oversight and spending authority effectively.”
As a presidential candidate running against incoming President Donald Trump, DeSantis accused his rival of being soft on Fauci.
During a 2023 interview on the Steve Deace Show, the Florida Governor lampooned the President’s disavowal of a late-term presidential commendation he granted, which he called “pathetic … drivel.”
“Of course he did give Fauci a presidential commendation his last day in office. Megyn Kelly asked him about it,” DeSantis said. “What was that? Was that the immaculate commendation that just happened to happen?”
Fauci was a frequent refrain for DeSantis during his insurgent challenge to Trump.
“I was born and raised in Florida. And while I’ve always loved the state, we didn’t have the same type of pride growing up that, say, people in Texas have about Texas. And yet in the last few years, particularly since I’ve been Governor, we’ve developed that pride and I think a lot of it is rooted in the fact that we told people like Fauci to take a hike during COVID,” DeSantis told Russell Brand in July.
Though the Never Back Down super PAC was not legally allowed to coordinate with DeSantis’ campaign, it helped to reinforce this messaging. An ad from the Spring called “Steel” is predicated on a central image: a picture of a White man in a hard hat watching Trump and Fauci talking COVID mitigation strategies.
Fauci was also a recurrent motif during DeSantis’ re-election campaign, with merchandise such as “Freedom over Fauci flip-flops” marketed to the faithful in 2022.
“Fauci doesn’t care about doing what’s right or using even basic common sense. He’s too caught up in TV interviews, magazine covers and the adulation and acceptance from elitists that he’s likely craved his entire life,” the Governor wrote in an email last year entitled “Permanent Faucism.”
Fauci served as a punching bag during more than one surge of COVID, and the Governor’s team found a merchandise opportunity there as well. When the delta variant strained hospital capacity in Florida, DeSantis’ political committee released merchandise lampooning Fauci, including “Don’t Fauci My Florida” beer koozies and T-shirts.
Biden pardoned others preemptively Monday, including General Mark Milley and former U.S. Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who broke with Trump and the GOP in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”
58 comments
ScienceBLVR
January 20, 2025 at 9:31 am
When the delta variant strained hospital capacity in Florida, DeSantis’ political committee released merchandise lampooning Fauci, including “Don’t Fauci My Florida” beer koozies and T-shirts.
So Fauci is a renowned scientist who saved millions of lives, even some in Florida, including my 85 year old mother, and our governor who wars with teachers and drag queens and makes childless comments while hawking unproven drugs and hiring one of the least qualified doctors as our surgeon general.
Fume baby Fume
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January 20, 2025 at 9:48 am
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TruthBTold
January 20, 2025 at 12:06 pm
Do you also believe that men can have babies, as modern medical “science” portrays?
MH/Duuuval
January 21, 2025 at 11:19 am
‘People who are born male and living as men cannot get pregnant. A transgender man or nonbinary person may be able to, however. It is only possible for a person to be pregnant if they have a uterus.” from Google AI
John Dickson
January 20, 2025 at 4:18 pm
The accusation is that Fauci funded the very thing you praise him for defending us against.
Funded gain of function. Hid the origin. Lied about masks, lied about social distancing, lied about 2 weeks to flatten the curve, lied about testing, lied about lack of clinical lesting of vaccine, assisted in cherry picking data for remdesivir. Oh, go on with yourself.
JD
January 20, 2025 at 4:41 pm
Second posting: Let’s break out some fact vs. fiction (or at least 1/2 fictions):
Funded gain-of-function: NIH funding went to EcoHealth Alliance, which supported research in Wuhan. While some experiments later met the technical definition of gain-of-function, this was part of broader pandemic preparedness efforts. Fauci didn’t directly fund or oversee these experiments, and the connection to COVID-19 remains unproven. Overblown.
Hid the origin: Fauci dismissed the lab-leak theory early but maintained publicly that all origins were being investigated. No evidence of a cover-up. Mischaracterized.
Lied about masks/social distancing: Early guidance on masks was based on supply shortages and evolving science, not lies. Social distancing policies were based on the best available knowledge at the time. False.
‘Two weeks to flatten the curve’: This was a messaging failure, not a promise the pandemic would end. The goal was to prevent hospitals from collapsing, which it did. Misunderstood.
Vaccine/testing/remdesivir: Vaccines were tested thoroughly before approval. Remdesivir’s effectiveness is debated, but no evidence of data manipulation. False.
The gain-of-function claim is their go-to ‘smoking gun,’ but it’s based on conflating funding for general research with direct responsibility for the pandemic. The rest is just a regurgitation of disproven talking points.
It’s because of false pretenses and witch-hunts like you posted Biden have him a pardon to protect a man that has given his life’s work to the public sector. Given his expertise and experience he could have long gone to make billions in the private sector. Again, Math.
JustBabs
January 21, 2025 at 10:21 am
Fastest rate of deaths occurred, in Florida, AFTER the proven treatments and vaccines were available. All due to Desantis and his crackpot surgeon general. Florida topped the national charts on Covid deaths, in just a few short months. The proof is in the numbers. So many preventable deaths. Desantis should be criminally liable. A public servants main responsibility is to protect the public, not encourage them to take risks, and die.
A Day Without Dying From Covid
January 20, 2025 at 9:33 am
Fauci save countless millions from their stupidity,if you contracted Covid and did follow CDC guidelines,it your own damn fault,if you survive Covid,you are still at risk of dying Google Covid Survival Death
Tjb
January 20, 2025 at 11:15 am
89000 Floridians died from Covid under DeSantis’s watch.
John Dickson
January 20, 2025 at 4:19 pm
The accusation is that Fauci funded the very thing you praise him for defending us against.
Funded gain of function. Hid the origin. Lied about masks, lied about social distancing, lied about 2 weeks to flatten the curve, lied about testing, lied about lack of clinical lesting of vaccine, assisted in cherry picking data for remdesivir. Oh, go on with yourself.
JD
January 20, 2025 at 4:36 pm
Let’s break out some fact vs. fiction (or at least 1/2 fictions):
Funded gain-of-function: NIH funding went to EcoHealth Alliance, which supported research in Wuhan. While some experiments later met the technical definition of gain-of-function, this was part of broader pandemic preparedness efforts. Fauci didn’t directly fund or oversee these experiments, and the connection to COVID-19 remains unproven. Overblown.
Hid the origin: Fauci dismissed the lab-leak theory early but maintained publicly that all origins were being investigated. No evidence of a cover-up. Mischaracterized.
Lied about masks/social distancing: Early guidance on masks was based on supply shortages and evolving science, not lies. Social distancing policies were based on the best available knowledge at the time. False.
‘Two weeks to flatten the curve’: This was a messaging failure, not a promise the pandemic would end. The goal was to prevent hospitals from collapsing, which it did. Misunderstood.
Vaccine/testing/remdesivir: Vaccines were tested thoroughly before approval. Remdesivir’s effectiveness is debated, but no evidence of data manipulation. False.
The gain-of-function claim is their go-to ‘smoking gun,’ but it’s based on conflating funding for general research with direct responsibility for the pandemic. The rest is just a regurgitation of disproven talking points.
It’s because of false pretenses and witch-hunts like you posted Biden have him a pardon to protect a man that has given his life’s work to the public sector. Given his expertise and experience he could have long gone to make billions in the private sector. Again, Math.
JustBabs
January 21, 2025 at 10:31 am
Disparaging those with such expertise and experience, in the public sector, is a loser move. Most of us know what they sacrifice to choose a career in civil service. Money is def a big one. Big loss for Americans if Donnie runs them all off. We will be at the mercy of greed and capitalism for our health and well-being. Greed and capitalism has no loyalty, patriotism, or compassion, for the American people.
MH/Duuuval
January 20, 2025 at 9:51 pm
BY WAY OF COMPARISON: Japan had about 75,000 deaths from Covid in a population of over 129 million vs. Florida at 89,000 deaths in a population of 23 million. The Japanese wore masks and embraced the vaccine.
Andy
January 20, 2025 at 9:44 am
Yes, the highest insurance rates in the Country while your hand-picked CFO runs for Congress, with all those insurance company donations! Your personal book tour paid by our high premiums, your failed Presidential aspirations paid by those high insurance premiums. Then your hand-picked CFO, who amassed millions of insurance company donations runs for Congress, a seat vacated by a pedophile, who is also wanting to be our Governor! Be very proud when we pay the highest premiums in the Nation! FREEDUMB!
Peachy
January 20, 2025 at 9:51 am
So do you think property insurance premiums will come down after the two hurricanes Florida took last summer and the fires in LA going on now?
JD
January 20, 2025 at 9:56 am
But there was no climate change. Remember when the BananaRepublicans in Florida scrubbed references to Climate Change from the laws and documentation? Why? Because their oil shilling overlords paid them to do so. DRILL BABY DRILL, right?
PeterH
January 20, 2025 at 12:52 pm
And you’re stupid enough to believe that Trump will lower food prices and maps around the globe will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico!
Tjb
January 20, 2025 at 10:01 am
DeSantis wants to weaponize our judicial system for political gain.
Under. DeSantis Covid policy,, 89,075 Floridian died. Perhaps the family of the deceased should sue you for wrongful death.
Ron, you are the swamp.
Ray Blacklidge
January 20, 2025 at 10:05 am
Biden has no idea who he is giving pardons to. Our great Governor needs to send his anger towards those who are calling the shots at the White House. Obama, Harris and others.
MH/Duuuval
January 20, 2025 at 9:52 pm
Like Zeus shooting thunderbolts from his forehead?
JD
January 20, 2025 at 10:15 am
Thanks to the Banana Republicans weaponizing the DOJ, this kind of corruption is set to become the norm. Public service? Forget it. It’ll be nothing but a playground for grifters and spineless yes-men, all lining up to cash in on personal gain.
This is Trump’s legacy: the true poison he’s injected into our democracy. He’s a modern-day Boss Tweed, dragging us back to the corrupt cesspool of Tammany Hall. Under his influence, the GOP has become a carnival of fraud, cowardice, and authoritarian rot.
PeterH
January 20, 2025 at 12:49 pm
Excellent summary of what’s to come!
SuzyQ
January 20, 2025 at 1:01 pm
?
MH/Duuuval
January 21, 2025 at 3:23 pm
How many J6 thugs will be free thanks to Trump’s pardons?
Tjb
January 20, 2025 at 10:39 am
DeSantis wants to weaponize our judicial system for political gain.
Under. DeSantis Covid policy,, 89,075 Floridian died. Perhaps the family of the deceased should sue desantis for wrongful death.
Ron, you are the swamp
Earl Pitts "Major Online Influncer" American
January 20, 2025 at 11:05 am
Good Morn ‘Ting America,
ALWAYS REMEMBER, ITS NOT NEWS UNTIL EARL WEIGHS IN:
“Don’t Fauci My Florida”
“Pure “D” Genius”, said Earl Pitts “Major Online Influncer” American.
Earl Pitts "Major Online Influncer" American
January 20, 2025 at 11:15 am
Good Morn ‘Ting America,
America, JD’s one of my newest “Besty Leftys” which is the reason I, Earl Pitts “Major Online Influncer” American, am holding back on telling JD that his above words perfectly describe the out-going 08iden SadMinistration.
Also “DITTO” (a Rush Limbaugh word) on why I am holding back on issueing JD a painfull CHASTIZEMENT.
Thank you America,
Earl Pitts “Major Online Influncer” American
*FREE BUMPER STICKER*
*EARL’S BESTY LEFTY ON BOARD*
JD
January 20, 2025 at 12:07 pm
Projectionism is a form of flattery Pitts – the ultimate kind.
And if the truth is known, Limbaugh admitted before he died (death bed repentence perhaps) that he didn’t believe any of the stuff he was shilling, he said making people angry was his currency for ratings.
Remember, I am rarely wrong. Heed my SAGE ADVICE.
TruthBTold
January 20, 2025 at 12:07 pm
In the Supreme Court case Burdick v. United States, the Court ruled that a pardon carries an “imputation of guilt”. The Court also stated that accepting a pardon was “an admission of guilt”.
JD
January 20, 2025 at 12:13 pm
The statement in Burdick v. United States about a pardon implying guilt is not a binding legal principle but a contextual observation. Pardons have since been granted in cases of both innocence and injustice, challenging the notion that they universally signify guilt.
Moreover, the current Supreme Court has demonstrated a willingness to depart from precedent in several landmark decisions, signaling that past rulings like Burdick might carry less weight in shaping contemporary interpretations of clemency and its implications.
SuzyQ
January 20, 2025 at 12:56 pm
Dictum rather than “contextual observation”?
JD
January 20, 2025 at 1:05 pm
You’re right, ‘dictum’ is the correct term as far as I understand it. The statements in Burdick about guilt were ancillary to the ruling and non-binding. Given the current Supreme Court’s approach to precedent, such “dicta” hold even less weight today.
In practical terms, pardons and the ruling do not inherently imply an admission of guilt.
As a sidebar, we could delve into legal versus philosophical guilt, it would likely be unproductive and wasted effort on most of those that lurk here.
Gene
January 20, 2025 at 4:45 pm
If there was no crime, no pardon is needed. Your woke, weazily nonsense doesn’t work anymore.
JD
January 20, 2025 at 4:47 pm
Yeah, hillbilly. If it was that easy, Trump would be in jail if you want to compare “weazily”.
But since your such a legal scholar, care to explain it?
Tjb
January 21, 2025 at 4:47 pm
To protect his family from an orange face lunatic. Trump loves revenge with people he dislike even those without criminal offenses. He will sue just to have you spend a fortune defending yourself
PeterH
January 20, 2025 at 12:45 pm
FUN FACT: Under DeSantis’s failed leadership …. per capita more Americans died of Covid in Florida than in the Covid hotspot California. Let’s remember that Covid originated in China and California is a gateway jet and cargo ship transportation hub from China.
GeeWoo
January 20, 2025 at 4:47 pm
Hahaha, Florida accurately reported deaths, and states like CA and NY went back and “adjusted” their numbers to make themselves not look too bad, once they stole the 2020 election. It’s all captured in the wayback machine. Nice try.
JD
January 20, 2025 at 4:55 pm
Florida “accurately reported deaths”? Sure, if you ignore the audits showing they undercounted thousands of deaths early on and conveniently changed reporting methods to make the pandemic seem less severe. California and New York had their issues too, like Cuomo’s nursing home scandal, but there’s no evidence of politically motivated adjustments. As for the “stolen election” claim, that’s been debunked more times than a flat Earth theory. The Wayback Machine archives websites, not conspiracies. Nice try, though.
MH/Duuuval
January 21, 2025 at 11:28 am
Peachy was referring to the original Wayback Machine, which was featured on the Rocky and Bullwinkle TV cartoon show from circa 1960.
JustBabs
January 21, 2025 at 10:42 am
Some local hospitals, in Florida, were so outraged by the state’s under reporting of the cases and deaths, that some took to FB to report their daily #’s to the public. Says a lot.
JD
January 22, 2025 at 4:35 pm
My local hospital system did just this. This action will be prosecuted now, licenses will be revoked, or medicad/medicare witheld should there be a second go around with this group and a pandemic.
SuzyQ
January 20, 2025 at 12:51 pm
America’s Governor speaks the truth, as he always does.
PeterH
January 20, 2025 at 12:53 pm
You’ve been brainwashed!
SuzyQ
January 20, 2025 at 12:59 pm
We Floridians voted to re-elect America’s Governor to a 2nd term as the governor of the free state of Florida in the greatest landslide in the history of modern Florida politics.
JD
January 20, 2025 at 1:10 pm
Is that a bold out lie or you misinformed?
Bob Graham’s 1982 re-election margin was 29.40% (64.70% to 35.30%), significantly larger than Ron DeSantis’s 19.40% margin in 2022 (59.40% to 40.00%). While DeSantis achieved the largest margin for a Republican governor in Florida history, Graham’s victory remains the largest overall in the state’s gubernatorial elections.
Math…
JD
January 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm
Or you saying 1982 wasn’t “modern” enough?
PeterH
January 20, 2025 at 1:17 pm
DeSantis is a garbage governor.
TruthBTold
January 20, 2025 at 4:49 pm
60+ % of Floridians disagree with you.
JD
January 20, 2025 at 4:53 pm
His 59.4% vote is less than 60+%, but again, you cannot “math”. Is that a Republican trait?
JD
January 22, 2025 at 4:37 pm
You like they don’t respond when you provide “math”? It’s like they cannot handle real numbers and logic. All while being pious? F@ck that. No wonder they feel people are elitist. They are just stupid and it’s hard not to appear so.
Victoria Olson
January 20, 2025 at 1:31 pm
LOL I really don’t Care what DeSantis opinion is on Fauci DO YOU?
That Fascist Nazi Governor tried to kill millions in Florida if you were stupid enough to listen to him and not wear masks and telling business what to do not to protect themselves from this Infectious airborne DISEASE. DeSatan could care less if you live or die just like trump two peas in a pod.
GeeWoo
January 20, 2025 at 4:48 pm
Since you asked, yes.
GeeWoo
January 20, 2025 at 5:10 pm
All science-based studies prove that mask harm (stunt learning, increase oral diseases and cancers of the mouth, esophagus, lungs, increase microplastic ingestion and respiratory infections) and provide negligible benefit. Stop denying the scientific method for your political science motives.
Along for the Ride
January 20, 2025 at 3:03 pm
As my name states…
MH/Duuuval
January 20, 2025 at 9:40 pm
In a brief, lucid moment in early COVID Dee decided to prioritize vaccinations for the elderly. This was a good choice, especially in light of what was happening in senior residential complexes.
Then, having been in charge when a vaccine was developed and successfully tested, MAGAs rejected it for partisan reasons. Dee followed suit although apparently both Dee and Trump got at least one shot each and, even so, Trump had a rough bout with it.
Asians have worn masks for a long time to protect themselves and others against viruses. Could be they have it all wrong, too.
Ocean Joe
January 21, 2025 at 9:21 am
Remember when Desantis got his covid shot, and then refused to answer whether he got the booster? You guys have really done a number on public health. We lost a whole bunch of southern preachers too.
But I give Trump credit for expediting the vaccine, even if too many of his supporters were too stupid to take it and even if he was too vain to wear a mask and threw covid spreading parties.
MH/Duuuval
January 21, 2025 at 11:35 am
Wasn’t Pence in charge those days Trump was hospitalized with Covid?
KathrynA
January 22, 2025 at 9:01 am
Just think how many millions of lives were saved through Fauci’s decisions as opposed to Ron DeSantis!!
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