Gov. Ron DeSantis pushes back at criticism of decision to reopen Florida
Reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Star panel.
Axios national political reporter Jonathan Swan said Wednesday that it was "tough to explain" New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's high approval rating for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic due to the high death toll in his state.
"Cuomo remains remarkably popular among his constituents when the death outcome in his state has been just eye-popping. That's the thing that I find really tough to explain," Swan said on the "Special Report" All-Star panel. "He's obviously been very vocal [in] public, you know, with these press conferences. But I mean, I wonder whether that is going to kind of match up against the outcome in New York."
Cuomo brushed off calls earlier Wednesday for the Department of Justice to open an investigation into the number of deaths in New York's nursing homes during the pandemic, claiming he was only following guidelines from the Trump administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Meanwhile, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ripped the media's coverage of the state's reopening during an appearance in Orlando alongside Vice President Mike Pence.
"You've got a lot of people in your profession who waxed poetically for weeks and weeks about how Florida was going to be just like New York," a visibly agitated DeSantis told reporters. "'Wait two weeks, Florida is going to be next. Just like Italy, wait two weeks.' Well hell, we're eight weeks away from that and it hasn't happened!"
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Washington Times opinion editor and Fox News contributor Charles Hurt said DeSantis was right to be "fired up" about the coverage of his state.
"I feel like the media, more than anybody, more than any politician, has kind of come up with egg on their face, considering the politicized nature with which they have covered this, the way they cover an awful lot of things," Hurt said. "But nothing as stark is as the way they have covered RonDeSantis' decisions down in Florida, which have turned out to be actually pretty smart."
As of Tuesday evening, New York had reported more than 354,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and nearly 23,000 deaths. Florida had reported more than 47,000 cases and nearly 2,100 deaths.
Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Andrew O'Reilly contributed to this report.
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