To those who had any doubt that Ron DeSantis lacks scruples on a Trumpian scale, you can put that doubt to rest. The Florida governor, who once championed covid vaccines and praised the Donald for their speedy development, has now decided that vaccinating one's body against death is a dubious thing.
All because he wants to get to Trump's right in the upcoming Republican presidential primaries. As sociopathy goes, so goes Gov. DeSantis.
His previous support of covid vaccines and the president behind them is clear. In early 2020: "I think they’re putting all hands on deck for it," he told Fox News. "I applaud the president." Feb. 2021: "We’re having more vaccine because of [government shipments to pharmacies], which is great." Again, Feb. 2021: "I can tell you, we wish we have had more vaccine every week, but it’s just being produced. So, I think, by and large, the Warp Speed team did a great job."
Apr. 2021: "I think the credit goes to President Trump," he told fellow sociopath and radio host Mark Levin. And July 2021: "If you are vaccinated, fully vaccinated, the chance of you getting seriously ill or dying from covid is effectively zero. These vaccines are saving lives." By January of this year, however, DeSantis refused even to acknowledge if he had received a booster. "I’ve done whatever I did," he said, and would say only.
Now he's assembling covid skeptics to rebut advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and "seeking to investigate vaccine makers for fraud," reports The Washington Post. Said he on Wednesday: "These companies have made a fortune off this federal government imposing or at least attempting to impose mandates, and a lot of false statements. I think people want the truth and I think people want accountability, so you need to have a thorough investigation into what’s happened with these shots."
But perish your noggin's suspicion that the governor is being political, says GOP donor and DeSantis supporter Eric Anton: "If the left comes at him and says, you flipped because you want to be more anti-vaccine than Trump, he’s just gonna kill ’em with facts. If you want to call that political, then I think you’re too political." Inherent in Anton's remark is that DeSantis needn't worry about Trump and the primaries, but about the left and the general — as though DeSantis' nomination is a done deal.
Which is probably justifiable. Some primary-state polls are already showing DeSantis with a lead over Trump — less because DeSantis is so lovable than Trump is increasingly toxic. A recent CNN poll found that "about 6 in 10 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say they want their party to nominate someone other than [Trump]," whose decline is palpable. "In January, the poll found a near-even split: 50% said they hoped Trump would be the nominee.... By July, 44% wanted Trump to be the party’s nominee, and now, 38% say the same."
Selling cornball trading cards to recidivist suckers is one thing. Convincing conservatives and Republican-leaning independents who want to win in 2024 that you — a twice-impeached, federally indictable former president — are the best choice for victory is something altogether different. For St. Pete's sake, even Trump-idolizer Steve Bannon likes the Florida governor: "What I like about DeSantis, he’s probably not a guy you’d like to run at, let’s go have a beer, but he’s all business."
Current and former healthcare executives see the future nominee's "business" in a less adulatory light. Said one, who's also a lifelong Republican who has counseled Republican pols: "We know he’s not really anti-vax, he’s on the record, but now he’s taking this position for really blatant political purposes, it appears, and it’s really undermining to healthcare professionals."
Added the former executive and political adviser: "I’m not sure what the gain is, because he’s already got the base, and now this is just going to alienate moderates and independents." The speaker appears to have forgotten that moderates and independents don't determine the outcome of primaries. Extremists do. And among Republican pols, they can never have enough.
That DeSantis is robbing Trump's cradle in the asylum is smart politics. He can always move a bit to the middle in the general, although he's unlikely to do so. So far, at least, he has little reason to contemplate a more moderate general-election campaign. While a recent USAToday/Suffolk University poll (13 Dec.) found President Biden beating Trump 47-40, it also found DeSantis beating Biden, 47-43.