Far as reboots go, Ron DeSantis’ attempts to revive his floundering campaign has been going about as well as Universal’s Dark Universe. So far, the Florida governor — once seen as the guy who could finally rid the GOP of Trump, if by becoming his younger and more disciplined clone — has had to gut his staff, including a guy who spread Nazi imagery. Now he’s losing fellow conservatives after saying he’d offer a key health job to a total nutjob.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), when asked if he would consider naming 2024 Democratic candidate RFK Jr. as his vice president:
“Sic him on the FDA if he’d be willing to serve, or sic him on CDC.” pic.twitter.com/C7wASCmbt6
— The Recount (@therecount) July 26, 2023
As per The Daily Beast, DeSantis recently spoke with rightwing pundit Clay Travis, during which he shot down the idea of making Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., currently gunning for the Democratic ticket, his veep. Not that he wouldn’t use him in another capacity down the road.
“I’m aligned with him on Fauci and the corruption and the health bureaucracies 100%. And I think he’s probably done said some other things that I agree with, too,” he explained.
Does DeSantis agree with Kennedy about his recent claim, delivered at a fart-filled press dinner, that COVID-19 was a bioweapon that was “ethnically targeted” to spare Jewish and Chinese people? He was pretty vague, but he was more specific about the role Kennedy would play in his hypothetical administration that probably isn’t happening.
“And so on that regard, it’s like, okay, if you’re president, sic him on the FDA if he’d be willing to serve, or sic him on CDC,” DeSantis said.
According to Mediaite, even Republicans, who have been turning on him as his only six-week-old campaign crumbles. Among them was The National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke, who wrote, “It’s flat-out insanity for DeSantis to mention RFK Jr. within the same sentence as the FDA or CDC, let alone as a potential appointee to do anything related to medicine. RFK Jr.’s a kook who’d improve nothing.”
It’s flat-out insanity for DeSantis to mention RFK Jr. within the same sentence as the FDA or CDC, let alone as a potential appointee to do anything related to medicine. RFK Jr.’s a kook who’d improve nothing. (The full answer’s even worse than this clip.) https://t.co/cIgpo8wIGn
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) July 26, 2023
Cooke’s colleague Philip Klein called it his plan simply “embarrassingly bad.”
Embarrassingly bad answer from DeSantis. https://t.co/FippgH1N6J
— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) July 26, 2023
Aaron Sibarium, of the conservative Washington Free Beacon, sounded almost liberal, tweeting, “Far and away the worst decision DeSantis has made is playing footsie with cranks who hate modern medicine and would slow-walk vaccine development in a future pandemic.”
Desantis has said it was a mistake to waive liability for vaccine developers. But the EU’s refusal to do that is part of why it took longer for vaccines to reach Europe than Britain or the United States.https://t.co/pZ2iuO392u
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) July 26, 2023
Fox News’ Guy Benson, meanwhile, simply wrote, “Nope.”
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 26, 2023
So far, DeSantis’ Mulligan doesn’t seem to be taking. Maybe third time’s the charm. Or fourth.
(Via The Daily Beast and Mediaite)