Gov. DeSantis: Some stay-at-home orders devolved into social control
Governor Ron DeSantis weighs in on governors who impose 'one size fits all' stay-at-home orders, 'you're not a dictator, people have rights'
Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here.
Politico had some choice words for media members who praise New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo but "love to hate" Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for reopening his state after coronavirus data suggests a sunny outlook — but a CNN analyst dismissed it as “snarky nonsense.”
In Thursday night's coronavirus newsletter, Politico reporters Marc Caputo and Renuka Rayasam began by noting that Florida was "not a post-apocalyptic hellscape of coronavirus infection and cadavers stacked like cordwood."
"Florida just doesn’t look nearly as bad as the national news media and sky-is-falling critics have been predicting for about two months now," they wrote. "But then, the national news media is mostly based in New York and loves to love its Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, about as much as it loves to hate Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis."
Politico said many media members “loves to love its Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, about as much as it loves to hate on Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis."
CNN political analyst Jackie Kucinich, who is also Washington bureau chief for The Daily Beast, took exception to the newsletter and called it as “snarky nonsense.”
“So, given how much everyone is suffering everywhere – grieving loved ones, job losses and even the simple things like hugging your friends – I fail to see how this snarky nonsense from @MarcACaputo – who I think is an awesome reporter – is helpful,” Kucinich wrote.
“The reporters in NY who you are shading have lost people too, and are working their tails off, @MarcACaputo,” she wrote in a second message.
WASHINGTON POST'S JENNIFER RUBIN MOCKED FOR REPEATEDLY CLAIMING 'THE WALLS ARE CLOSING IN' ON TRUMP
"DeSantis is actually polling worse than Cuomo in their respective states, and the Florida press is wondering why," the Politico newsletter continued. "Part of that is style. Cuomo has a smooth delivery, a deep and calming voice and an attitude that projects he can answer any question. DeSantis sometimes comes across as peevish and defensive, has made a misstatement or two and was mocked for struggling to put on a mask. But most of the difference between DeSantis and Cuomo is due to politics. DeSantis governs a politically divided state. Cuomo is a scion of Democratic royalty in a deeply Democratic state."
The Politico reporters acknowledged that "media bias" is a major factor, noting how Cuomo has a press that "defers to him" and "preferred to cover 'Florida Morons' at the beach."
"Maybe things would be different if DeSantis had a brother who worked in cable news and interviewed him for a 'sweet moment' in primetime," the reporters wrote as an apparent knock toward CNN anchor Chris Cuomo's softball interviews with his governor brother.
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE
However, they noted that DeSantis "can't quite take a victory lap" since he "deferred to local leaders early on" and how "more than 1.4 million unique unemployment claims have been submitted, but only half have received compensation.
"DeSantis is trying to get fixed quickly. He knows that in a state he won by less than half a point two years ago, and one that President Donald Trump won by slightly more than a point in 2016, it’s a political time bomb to have potentially hundreds of thousands of people blaming the party in power for their woes in an election year," the newsletter concluded.
Kucinich was mocked on Twitter for her thoughts:
“So, I don’t mind a ratio. Sometimes you have to bask in the fact that a lot of people didn’t like what you tweeted. It happens,” Kucinich wrote in response to the backlash.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox