On Thursday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Greg Kelly Reports,” 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump stated that 2024 GOP rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “loved Dr. Fauci” and “said, let’s not do any[thing] if we don’t have the approval of Dr. Fauci.” Trump also stated that “Florida was third in the nation in deaths.” And DeSantis “had lines for miles of people getting vaccines,” and believed in them before changing.
Trump said, “I will tell you that he loved Dr. Fauci, and I’ll send you some articles tomorrow, he said, let’s not do any[thing] if we don’t have the approval of Dr. Fauci. … That’s all he talked about is Dr. Fauci. … I’ll tell you, he loved Fauci, but he also locked down his state. His beaches were locked down. His roads were locked down, and his whole — he’s trying to pretend that none of this stuff happened. Now, if you look at somebody like McMaster — Henry McMaster (R) from South Carolina, if you look at Kristi Noem of South Dakota (R), some of the [Republicans], they really didn’t lock down. But Ron locked down Florida. I was there, and I can tell you.”
Later, Trump added, “Florida was third in the nation in deaths. Now, that’s a horrible scorecard, but Florida was third in death. He was a big believer in the vaccines. This guy had lines for miles of people getting vaccines, now, he pretends [otherwise].”
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