Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is taking a new approach to his campaign, stepping up his attacks on former President Donald Trump, targeting policy areas or events in which he believes the former president failed.
DeSantis said in an NBC News interview aired on Monday night that Republicans should focus less on Trump and the past heading into the next election, continuing his trend of presenting himself as the best alternative to Trump, who is the GOP front-runner. The Florida governor took it further and said he believes Trump set himself up to lose in 2020, pointing at several instances in which Trump may have created his own demons.
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"But here’s the issue that I think is important for Republican voters to think about: Why did we have all those mail votes? Because Trump turned the government over to [Anthony] Fauci," DeSantis said. "They embraced lockdowns. They did the CARES Act, which funded mail-in ballots across the country."
"Donald Trump signed that bill that funded the mail ballots that all the Republicans have been so concerned about. And also, with the censorship of the Hunter Biden [story], that was Donald Trump’s FBI that was working with that," he continued.
As the first GOP debate approaches and DeSantis finds himself struggling to maintain the momentum he enjoyed leading up to his campaign announcement, the Florida governor has opened up a new avenue of attack: taking the former president head-on. His comments were some of his most forceful criticisms of Trump to date.
Here is a look at how much weight DeSantis's jabs carry.
'Embraced lockdowns' — Somewhat true
DeSantis claimed that Trump "turned over the government" to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022. While some actions by the former president support this claim, others show that Trump was quick to wrestle control away.
Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote the guidelines for the COVID-19 pandemic while Trump was president. On March 13, 2020, the Trump administration declared a nationwide emergency, and states began to implement shutdowns. The White House under Trump also extended all social distancing measures until the end of April 2020.
However, Trump remained adamant in the early months of 2020 that COVID-19 was "like a flu" and that it was "going to disappear." On April 13, 2020, most states were reporting widespread cases of COVID-19. Trump announced at a press briefing that day that the U.S. would cease contributing funding to the World Health Organization.
A few days later, the Trump administration released a plan outlining how states should reopen. He encouraged businesses to reopen in May 2020. Trump also took away power from the CDC, instructing hospitals nationwide to report COVID-19 hospitalization data to the Department of Health and Human Services rather than the CDC.
Trump and DeSantis have argued about each other's COVID-19 policies in the past. DeSantis has championed his approach to the pandemic, touting on the campaign trail how he moved Florida away from coronavirus restrictions early on and pushed the legislature to bar vaccine and mask mandates.
In May, Trump blasted the Florida governor for the state's COVID-19 death rate.
"Why do they say that DeSanctus did a good job? New York had fewer deaths! Also, he shut down the State, and even its beaches (unlike other Republican Governors)," Trump said at the time.
'CARES Act ... funded mail-in ballots' — True
The Trump administration signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act into law on March 27, 2020. The law provided funding for stimulus checks of $1,200 to be sent to adults, expanded unemployment benefits, and created forgivable small-business loans, among other things.
The Republican National Committee has urged its voters to embrace early voting, as well as voting by mail. DeSantis claims the CARES Act allowed for an increase in mail-in voting, something that Democrats have used to their advantage.
According to the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, the CARES Act provided $400 million to states to "prevent, prepare for, and respond" to COVID-19 during the 2020 election. The money could be used for a variety of things, including "printing of additional ballots and envelopes" for a higher propensity of absentee or mail-in voters.
"Over 70% of the states specifically mentioned using the funds to cover higher costs to print, mail, and process mail-in ballots," the Election Assistance Commission reported to the committee.
In this case, DeSantis is correct: The mail-in ballots that Trump complained were part of a widespread election fraud conspiracy were funded through a bill that he signed into law. Trump admitted in August 2020 that he was starving the U.S. Postal Service of money to make it more difficult to process the surge in mail-in ballots, saying it prevented "universal mail-in voting."
Trump's FBI worked to block Hunter Biden story — Somewhat true
If Trump is the target for Democrats, Hunter Biden is that for the GOP. Republicans have latched on to the Hunter Biden scandals as proof that the Justice Department and corresponding agencies, such as the FBI, are "weaponized."
FBI and IRS whistleblowers who testified before or provided evidence for the House Judiciary Committee's investigation into the weaponization of the federal government said that the FBI told Twitter and Facebook to block the Hunter Biden story from appearing on news feeds, despite knowing it was real.
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DeSantis claimed that Trump's FBI worked to block the story. This is true. Trump was president at the time the laptop story broke. Trump believed the Hunter Biden story could be used to his advantage to win reelection in 2020 by discrediting now-President Joe Biden over alleged claims that he was tied to the younger Biden's foreign business dealings.
However, the FBI has traditionally served as one of the most independent agencies of the executive branch, a description that has been heavily challenged by Republicans, and appeared to be working against the sitting president's agenda in 2020.