CBS's "60 Minutes" owes Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., a retraction and an apology.
The liberal media world seems to be very afraid of Florida's chief executive.
It has apparently decided he's the GOP’s rising star; a star which must be snuffed out.
Nothing proves this point better than the TV news magazine's recent hit job on him.
With polls showing him to be the strongest possible Republican candidate for President in 2024 if Donald Trump decides not to run again, DeSantis has become an especially favorite target of the entire left-tilting national media.
Liberal anchors and pundits first put him in their crosshairs for his handling of COVID-19 in the Sunshine State.
For months they hammered away at the conservative governor's policies, predicting they would lead Florida to worst-in-the-nation coronavirus death rates.
However, fortunately for Floridians — and unfortunately for his constant media critics —DeSantis's clear-headed pandemic policies proved to be effective in containing COVID, without devastating Florida’s economy.
The governor made a wise, early decision to concentrate his virus fighting efforts on Florida’s elderly, its most vulnerable population.
With one of the nation’s largest concentrations of retirees, Florida could have fared far worse.
But DeSantis’s COVID policies held down deaths in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
Florida’s COVID-19 mortality rates are lower than in 27 other states, including Northeastern and Midwestern states severely locked down.
This success relative to states like New York and Michigan came without the heavy-handed measures those states imposed.
Because Ron DeSantis did not cave into teachers’ union bosses, Florida schools stayed open while students in other states languished in remote, or virtual, learning.
Businesses were not locked down as tightly in Florida.
That left Sunshine State businesses breathing room to ride out this epidemic.
Northeasterners venturing to Florida as COVID travel restrictions lift have noted the atmosphere there is measurably more upbeat than in the locked-down states they came from.
Thus, Florida escaped the worst health, and other, impacts of the coronavirus.
Florida’s home-building market is booming.
Its key entertainment venues are thriving once again.
As the rest of the nation longs for a return to normalcy, Florida is shining the way forward.
It is literally a light at the end of a very long tunnel.
All of this brings us back to "60 Minutes."
Its botched hit job was itself easily shot down by facts the CBS report ignored.
The story implied that the DeSantis administration’s decision to include Florida’s Publix grocery stores as vaccine sites must have somehow been tied to a contribution Publix’s made to the DeSantis campaign.
Bus as the governor tried to explain to an un-listening CBS, Publix was chosen for this role because other COVID vaccine partners – notably Walgreens and CVS – were concentrating on DeSantis’s priority of vaccinating the most vulnerable seniors in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
In essence CBS was criticizing the governor for prioritizing the very life-saving measures that have proven successful in Florida.
Notably, even Florida Democratic officeholders have sprung to Mr. DeSantis’s defense.
The Democrat who serves as director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management Services insisted "No one from the governor’s office suggested Publix. It’s just absolute malarkey."
Palm Beach County’s Democratic Mayor also defended DeSantis. "The reporting was not just based on bad information, it was intentionally false," said Mayor Dave Kerner. "I know this because I offered to provide my insight into Palm Beach County’s vaccination efforts and '60 Minutes' declined."
That’s "60 Minutes" blown away in 60 seconds.
When members of the other party think enough of you to come to your defense against a baseless attack, it also says something significantly about your character.
Ron DeSantis has become a leader to watch.
He leads with his heart and his head.
He’s independent. His leadership on the current pandemic attests to that.
He’s smart.
His Yale undergraduate and Harvard Law degrees (with honors) attest to that.
He’s a patriot. His Bronze Star for service in Iraq attests to that.
DeSantis is genuinely presidential material.
CBS and "60 Minutes" have failed.
Former Senator Alfonse D’Amato served a distinguished 18-year career in the U.S. Senate, where he chaired the Senate Banking Committee and was a member of the Senate Appropriations and Finance Committees. The former Senator shares insights "with a clear-eyed view of the political forces that shape the world we live in today." Read Alfonse D'Amato's Reports — More Here.
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