Governor and Presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis took aim at “COVID authoritarianism” on Wednesday, promising to bring a “reckoning” against the Deep State if elected to the White House next year. He delivered his remarks at a ‘Medical Freedom Town Hall’ in Manchester, New Hampshire, organized by the pro-DeSantis PAC ‘Never Back Down.’
“This whole thing is a total medical swamp right now, and it needs to be drained,” DeSantis said.
“We cannot have elites in our society perform this poorly and this consistently without any accountability. If there is no accountability for COVID authoritarianism, they are going to try to do this again. As your President, I will conduct a major overhaul of the CDC, NIH, and FDA, and bring a reckoning to Deep State bureaucrats like Anthony Fauci.”
Reflecting on the country’s lockdown response, DeSantis railed against the bureaucrats that shut America down.
“They were wrong about school closures,” he said. “They were wrong about outdoor transmission.”
“I was getting hammered because I had beaches open in Florida … They’re going to go out and they’re going to go to parties, they’re going to intermingle, you know, what a lot of them may get COVID and it’ll go, it’ll cycle through and then they’ll go on with their lives.”
“And not one person was even admitted to the hospital in the college-age in Florida, even though they were out living normally,” he added.
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Ron DeSantis on the medical bureaucracy's COVID failures: "It was rooted in people like Fauci, and all these other people, sowing fear and hysteria throughout the country."
"We know the federal government muffed this in many different ways, and we need a reckoning." pic.twitter.com/tM4HJn1ecH
— Never Back Down (@NvrBackDown24) November 1, 2023
DeSantis was joined in New Hampshire by Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who praised DeSantis for standing up to the COVID consensus during the lockdowns.
“Can you imagine the courage it took to have all these MDs, and news experts saying that you can’t open schools, people have to stay home. ‘Why are you young people having fun at the beach?'” Ladapo said. “To stare that down, to read the data, to reach a conclusion, to know that conclusion is right, and all of these Harvard MDs and PhDs are wrong—that takes courage. And he embodies that. That is who he is.”
Ladapo was named to his position in 2021 after DeSantis fired pro-lockdown Surgeon General Scott Rivkees. Ladapo himself is a graduate of Harvard Medical School.
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Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo says @RonDeSantis’ COURAGE is why he supports him for president:
“He embodies that. That is who he is.” pic.twitter.com/RYpYZ8qlPp
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) November 1, 2023
During the event, DeSantis also criticized former President Donald Trump for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. DeSantis vowed to “do a lot of different things right off the bat” if elected President.
“It’s going to change the way the federal government is going to be able to approach anything like this in the future.”
A recent poll of New Hampshire voters by USA Today and Suffolk University found DeSantis in third place behind Trump and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. DeSantis, however, told reporters Wednesday that he was remaining optimistic.
“Most New Hampshire voters probably will not make a decision prior to January,” DeSantis said. “We’re building a lot of goodwill. We’re continuing to expand support, but those key decisions by the majority of the electorate are going to be in January.”
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