Trump and 'puppet' Ron Desantis are killing Florida, says furious Internet as coronavirus cases spike in state
The United States is seeing rising numbers of Covid-19 infections as the number of coronavirus-confirmed cases crossed 2.5M. Among the new epicenters of the pandemic are Arizona, Texas and Florida. A new viral video from MeidasTouch is now making the rounds on social media as angry users call out President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the state's rising numbers.
On June 29, the state's health department reported additional 5,266 cases bringing Florida's total to 146,341. There were an additional 28 resident deaths, bringing the total to 3,447. This was the sixth day in a row that the state had more than 5,000 cases in a day. The record for one-day increases was on June 26 with 8,942 cases. Total hospital admissions in the state for Covid-19 cases are now at 14,354. The state’s overall percentage of positive tests is 7.6 percent.
Meanwhile, DeSantis has come under fire over claims that his administration is "cooking the books" in an effort to hide the true impact of the devastating pandemic. Rebekah Jones, who says she was fired from her job in charge of the state’s official Covid-19 database in May for refusing to manipulate its figures, claimed on social media that she had evidence that employees at Florida’s department of health "have been instructed this week to change the numbers and begin slowly deleting deaths and cases so it looks like Florida is improving next week in the lead-up to July 4, like they’ve 'made it over the hump'".
Trump loyalist DeSantis has been criticized for the state's slow response to curb the numbers since the onset of the pandemic, including deferring to put the state under lockdown and entrusting beach closings to local governments during spring break while vacationers continued to congregate. Moreover, DeSantis, like the president, has refused to advocate for the wearing of masks, despite incontrovertible scientific evidence they help curtail the spread of the disease.
In the wake of the rising numbers, MeidasTouch, an American political action committee aimed at stopping the reelection of Trump in the 2020 presidential election, released a video featuring clips of DeSantis and Trump. The video went viral as many took to social media to trend "#TrumpKillsFlorida". The video features a clip of DeSantis saying, "Everyone in the media said Florida was gonna be like New York or Italy... and that has not happened," while also featuring audio clips from news programs saying, "Some businesses newly reopened have closed down again", "more than 4,000 new infections" and "almost 9,000 cases".
The video also features Trump saying that "the cure cannot be worse than the problem itself", and that the country needed to get its "sports back" because he is "tired of watching baseball games that are 14 years old".
One user tweeted, "My home state and hometown is filling with coronavirus cases and Ron DeSantis isn't even promoting mask use, let alone skinning something about it, besides closing the bars. He's in lockstep with Trump's strategy of ignoring Covid 19. #TrumpKillsFlorida." Another wrote, "Ron DeSantis underreported COVID-19 cases and opened too soon. Now with record-breaking numbers in Florida, you can be sure that there are a whole lot more cases that aren’t even being reported. DeSantis followed Trump, and they both have blood on their hands. #TrumpKillsFlorida."
A user shared, "Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis should be charged with murder... Now!!!" Another opined, "#TrumpKillsFlorida@GovRonDeSantis is Trump's puppet and is lying to Florida and is killing Florida. DeSantis has the hospitals under-reporting and has the DOH under-reporting. Florida has a very high count of pneumonia and pneumonia deaths." Another user shared, "I don’t want to be mean to Florida, cause, uh, they’re going through some stuff right now, but... What was the rationale for electing @GovRonDeSantis
again? Not sure that’s working out for you. #TrumpKillsFlorida," while a user wrote, "I guess keeping the beaches open and generating more money was more important than Floridian lives #TrumpKillsFlorida #RonDeSantis #Greed."