On Saturday, MSNBC’s AM Joy, host Joy Reid created a platform dedicated to vicious attacks against Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis’s handling of coronavirus, as well as other GOP governors’ reopening approaches. The panelists maliciously went after the Florida governor, even going as far as giving him the nickname, ‘Governor Disastrous,’ all while completely giving a pass on Democratic governors mishandling of the pandemic.
Reid insisted that leadership styles may not have everything to do with the coronavirus spikes:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis lagged behind other states in imposing lockdown measures and was one of the first to begin reopening, but it's not just Florida. Four other states hit new records on Friday. Georgia, Idaho, Tennessee, and Utah. And big states like Texas and California have seen a troubling rise in cases despite very different leadership styles in those states.
Instead of discussing California how California is about to surpass more cases than New York City, Reid decided to make the focus of her panel on bashing Florida. It is incredibly dishonest for a host to completely ignore that New York City, run by Democrat Bill DeBlasio, has 216, 239 positive coronavirus cases, followed by Democrat Gavin Newsom’s California 206,433 positive cases, then Democrat Andrew Cuomo’s New York State with 177,489 positive cases. Currently, Florida is sixth on the list for positive coronavirus cases, with 130,092 positive cases.
Reid directly asked the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services to criticize the Governor of Florida:
Commissioner Fried, I want to let you critique your governor's performance, because he was very bold. You saw the ad at the top, in which he's boasting that everything is going to be fine, don't say we're going to be like New York. Well, here we are now, 122,960 confirmed cases in Florida. 3,366 deaths.
Other than the clear bias of how this was phrased, no state should be compared to New York, not a single state will nearly be as bad as the Democrat run state of New York. Deaths per one-hundred thousand residents in Florida is at 15.9, while in New York City that number is at 267.5, and New York State is at 77.7.
Reid gave a platform to radical podcast host Fernand Amandi, who gave Governor DeSantis the nickname ‘Governor Disastrous’:
The problem Joy is this is a problem not just limited to Florida. There is a pattern here, and it seems to be that every state that is led by Republican governors, whether it's here in Florida under “Governor Disastrous,” in Arizona, under Governor Ducey, in Texas under Governor Abbott, they've taken not only the wrong steps.
It is disgusting the double-standard held at MSNBC and by their guests by only holding Republican governors accountable, but not holding a single Democratic governor accountable, and in some cases even treating them like heroes. It is quite clear that MSNBC is putting all the focus on Florida, because it is an election year, and they want to do anything possible to hurt President Trump and Republican Party in one of the most important battleground states.
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Read the full transcript below:
MSNBC’s AM Joy
06/27/2020
10:44:10 AM
JOY REID: Multiple state governors who chose to be obedient to Donald Trump about coronavirus, rather than to the science are now scrambling to reverse course. Take Florida, which had its record highest day of new cases on Friday, nearly 9,000 cases reported in just 24 hours. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis lagged behind other states in imposing lockdown measures and was one of the first to begin reopening, but it's not just Florida. Four other states hit new records on Friday. Georgia, Idaho, Tennessee, and Utah. And big states like Texas and California have seen a troubling rise in cases despite very different leadership styles in those states.
The country overall also hit a new record with more than 40,000 cases reported. On Friday alone eleven states are now pausing or flat out reversing their plans to reopen. And joining me now is Dr. Howard Koh, former Assistant Secretary of Health in the Obama Administration. Nikki Fried, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services and Democratic pollster Fernand Amandi, host of the podcast “Strange Days.” Thank you all for being here. Dr. Koh, let me go to you first. What explains this sudden spike in states like Florida and Texas and even California?
DR. HOWARD KOH (FMR. ASST. SECRETARY FOR HEALTH): Well, Joy, we're very disturbed to see five months into this pandemic these record-breaking trends. We should be on the other side of the pandemic now, but instead in places like Florida we see numbers that are 500 percent higher than Memorial Day, positivity rates that have tripled, and in short the reopening strategy in places like Florida have not worked. Everybody wants to solve the economic crisis, but the only way to get there is to solve the health crisis first.And so, we know what we have to do, we have to double down on prevention, we have to double down on public health, for wearing masks for example. People should be wearing masks, not just for themselves, but for those who they’re with, their family members, people they love, care about. The way everyone can make a contribution to public health. And these have to be resolved now before the fall comes and we face a possible second wave and the flu season coming on as a threat as well.
REID: Yeah, I think the idea that warm weather was going to solve it is obviously not true because we are in warm weather and look what's happening. Commissioner Fried, I want to let you critique your governor's performance, because he was very bold. You saw the ad at the top, in which he's boasting that everything is going to be fine, don't say we're going to be like New York. Well, here we are now, 122,960 confirmed cases in Florida. 3,366 deaths. Florida counties fighting coronavirus surged by closing beaches, mailing out masks. You see a lot of closings now in South Florida. And then there's a chart showing the trajectory of Florida cases from March until June 26th. And it's just up, up, up, up, up. What is the governor-- critique the governor's performance for us, if you might?
NIKKI FRIED (FLORIDA COMM. FOR AGRICULTURE & CONSUMER SERVICES): Yeah, so I was critical of the governor from day one. I called on this day three weeks before he actually put it into place and was actually hopeful. You know, he put out a very methodical, data driven policy on reopening, but unfortunately that's not what happened here in the state. This very arbitrary on opening up bars, capacity for restaurants, gyms, fitness centers, and so what happened is that we let down our guard. We saw the governor and the president put their heads in the sand. You know, people just thought that the mission was accomplished and they let down their security guard. And so now we're seeing these huge spikes throughout the entire state and really the governor's leadership has been emptier than really President Trump's rally in Tulsa.And so what we need to be doing now is taking these measured approaches. I called on a statewide mass coordinates, which the governor has refused to do. So our local governments are having to step up to the plate. There’s no enforcement even when we were opening up businesses. The businesses were going to 100% capacity. And again, everybody thought this was behind us so people really were taking responsibility of their own. Businesses were not following regulations and the governor was moving on putting his head back into the sand thinking let's hide the ball, let's look at something else and forget that Covid ever existed.
(…)10:49:35 AM
REID: Fernand, with that kind of leadership, you know, and Governor DeSantis in lock step with that, are you surprised that Florida is where Florida is?
FERNAND AMANDI (PODCAST HOST “STRANGE DAYS”) Not at all, Joy. By the time this is all said and done, Governor Ron DeSantis is going to have to change his name to “Governor Ron Disastrous,” because, it has been disastrous and lethal mismanagement, as Commissioner Fried and Dr. Koh alluded to.The problem Joy is this is a problem not just limited to Florida. There is a pattern here, and it seems to be that every state that is led by Republican governors, whether it's here in Florida under “Governor Disastrous,” in Arizona, under Governor Ducey, in Texas under Governor Abbott, they've taken not only the wrong steps. It seems to be deliberately so and an antithesis run by Democratic governors where they've successfully been able to bend the curve. One other elements I think that is clearly on display here is you have in this Trump Republican party a party that is clearly incapable of governing or, worse, unwilling or has no interest in governing. This is a party and a government that is only interested in the maintenance of power. Their policy is the pathological lie and to gaslight.
