DeSantis' Strange U-Turn: Lambasts Fauci Now, But Praised His COVID-19 Handling Under Trump

While Ron DeSantis has hurled a series of attacks on Donald Trump for "turning the country over to [Dr. Anthony] Fauci in March 2020," the Florida governor was actually busy praising Fauci’s efforts in handling the crisis at that time. 

What Happened: According to CNN, DeSantis had praised the chief public health official at the same time, saying Fauci was "really, really good and really, really helpful" and "really doing a good job."

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Fauci was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to 2022 and served under President Trump as one of the lead members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

DeSantis even cited Fauci's recommendations when communicating Florida’s early pandemic policies. "You have a lot of people there who are working very, very hard, and they're not getting a lot of sleep," the governor said on March 25, 2020, at a briefing on Florida's response. 

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"And they're really focusing on a big country that we have. And from Dr. Birx to Dr. Fauci to the vice president who's worked very hard, the surgeon general, they're really doing a good job. It's a tough, tough situation, but they're working hard."

Last week, DeSantis criticized Trump, accusing him of handing over control to Fauci during the COVID-19 crisis and destroying “millions of lives.”

“I think he did great for three years, but when he turned the country over to Fauci in March of 2020, that destroyed millions of people’s lives,” he said. 

Bryan Griffin, a spokesman for DeSantis, defending the GOP presidential primary, told CNN that the Florida leader initially followed guidance from Fauci but changed course later.

"Like most Americans, the governor initially assumed medical officials were going to serve the interests of the people and keep politics out of their decision-making. When it became clear that this wasn't the case, the governor charted his own course and never looked back," Griffin told the publication. 

"Governor DeSantis would've fired Anthony Fauci."

Meanwhile, Recent polls have suggested that the ex-president holds a strong position in the GOP primary and has consistently maintained a double-digit lead over DeSantis. 

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