DeSantis complains again about ‘60 Minutes’ story, gets vaccinated off-camera

For the second day in a row, Gov. Ron DeSantis took to the podium to attack CBS News and “60 Minutes” over its Sunday story on vaccine favoritism in Florida, this time for an entire press conference held without taking questions.

Shortly afterward, a DeSantis spokeswoman said the governor had privately received his vaccination shot, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. She did not say which vaccine he received or where he got it.

Many public officials have gotten inoculated on camera to promote the vaccines to their constituents, including state CFO Jimmy Petronis, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, then-Vice President Mike Pence, President Joe Biden and all the living former presidents except for Donald Trump.

The press conference took place as coronavirus cases in the state continue to rise.

Florida is one of five states that accounted for nearly half of the new cases nationally last week, according to Fox News.

DeSantis threatened CBS with unspecified “consequences” on Monday, in response to a reporter’s question. On Tuesday, the governor called the piece “the big lie,” co-opting language recently used to describe former President Trump’s false allegations of election fraud.

Both DeSantis and Democrat Jared Moskowitz, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, denied that Publix’s $100,000 contribution to his campaign influenced vaccine decisions.

“If you’re suggesting agency heads should start looking at financial disclosures to find out where they should award contracts and how they can operate, that’s extremely dangerous,” Moskowitz said.

DeSantis and Moskowitz also denied that Publix had “exclusive” vaccination rights in Palm Beach County, a stance echoed by Democratic Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner.

The bulk of the story, however, looked into the disparity in how vaccines were administered in Palm Beach County, where Commissioner Melissa McKinlay had concerns about low-income residents in the western part of the county who live 25 miles or more from a Publix.

DeSantis’s pushback against the story, now in its third day including emails attacking “60 Minutes” on Sunday, also mostly sidestepped the issue of vaccination sites set up in wealthy senior communities developed by DeSantis donor Pat Neal. CBS stood by its story, saying in a statement that it had requested interviews with DeSantis, who declined, and Moskowitz, who declined to be interviewed on camera until after the story’s deadline.

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis was matter-of-fact in his tribute to U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Democrat representing Broward and Palm Beach counties, who died Tuesday..