Gov. Ron DeSantis thinks Joe Biden’s pardon of Anthony Fauci leaves an opening for his soon-to-be Attorney General James Uthmeier to prosecute the doctor for pandemic misdeeds.
“We have got a new Attorney General coming in. I think he’s of the mindset to look at this to see what the jurisdictional hooks are, to see what what if any statutes may have been violated,” DeSantis said at the Yale Federalist Society Saturday, regarding 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.
The Governor said in addition to it being “very possible that the new AG in Florida looks and pursues this type of investigation,” that “some other states would also do it.”
“So it may end up boomeranging against Fauci,” DeSantis predicted. “Biden intended to shield him from accountability and it may have actually sparked state-based efforts to ensure his accountability.”
DeSantis blasted Biden’s pardon of Fauci last month.
“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.
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.
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