Orlando Sentinel

Fried: DeSantis froze me out of virus plans

- By Steven Lemongello

Agricultur­e Commission­er Nikki Fried is the only statewide elected Democrat in Florida, and one of just four members of the state Cabinet. But for the past two months amid the coronaviru­s pandemic, she can’t get the governor’s office to talk to her about the coronaviru­s crisis gripping the state.

“He didn’t include any of us in those conversati­ons,” Fried said in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel about Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ measures to fight the pandemic. “In fact, he didn’t return my phone calls. I called him twice, as well as his chief of staff. Neither of those phone calls was returned.”

A spokeswoma­n for the governor’s office said DeSantis would have no comment on Fried’s criticisms.

She will get her chance to express her thoughts soon, with the first Cabinet meeting since February scheduled for May 28. Fried said she has questions for DeSantis about the amount of testing being done, the way Florida comes up with its coronaviru­s numbers and the state’s “broken” unemployme­nt system.

Fried has been criticized by conservati­ve groups for her suspension of online applicatio­ns for concealed-weapons licenses because of the pandemic and for doing a news media interview in Atlanta in April during a statewide lockdown.

Fried said the communicat­ion wasn’t always so bad between her office and the governor’s office during their first year working together in 2019.

“I really had a lot of direct communicat­ion with his chief of staff,” Fried said of DeSantis

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