“On the Holmes Front,” with Frank Holmes
So far, the Republican presidential primaries have been a one-man race, with President Donald Trump leads his closest challenger by a head-spinning 39 points.
But Florida Governor Ron DeSantis may have just found his opening — served up to him by none other than Donald Trump.
DeSantis rode the huge momentum of his landslide reelection last November into the GOP presidential race, but he has hardly laid a glove on the 45th president… except on one issue: the way Trump handled COVID-19.
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Trump is remembered for removing his mask on the White House steps, but he’s also the one who made Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx his top advisers, televised their “expert” advice every afternoon, and shut down the country “two weeks to stop the spread.”
On the other hand, DeSantis so angered the establishment by leading the country in reopening Florida that the media nicknamed him “DeathSantis.”
To this point, DeSantis has only mildly jabbed at Trump over the issue—ironically, Joe Biden has hit it harder—but a friendly talk show host tried to help Trump get in front of the issue this week.
How did it go? You be the judge.
“The biggest knock on your presidency is you kept Dr. Fauci. Why did you keep Dr. Fauci?” radio legend Hugh Hewitt asked Trump on Wednesday.
Trump answered he kept Fauci on board, because he was “not allowed to fire him.”
“Dr. Fauci would tell me things, and I wouldn’t do them,” Trump said.
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Fauci “wasn’t a big player in my administration,” Trump claimed. “Dr. Fauci became a big player in the administration of Biden.”
"Why did you keep Dr. Fauci?"
Former President Trump responded to a question by radio host Hugh Hewitt about why he kept Dr. Anthony Fauci around, a decision which Hewitt called "the biggest knock on your presidency." pic.twitter.com/4ZQZpzAQv2
— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) September 7, 2023
If Trump couldn’t fire Fauci, why did Trump tell a crowd—in Florida—he would fire Fauci “a little bit after the election”?
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Instead, Fauci called it quits with the largest retirement package in history.
DeSantis can campaign that he ignored them both. He did shut down Florida in the middle of April 2020, but he reopened by the beginning of May—and he banned mask mandates, vaccine mandates, and gain-of-function research.
While Trump’s Operation Warp Speed pushed for COVID shots, DeSantis promoted the use of monoclonal antibodies to treat people who had caught the virus.
For months, Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force kept telling DeSantis to take “aggressive action,” like lockdowns, to fight the virus. DeSantis told them to pound sand at one of Florida’s open beaches.
Trump even rewarded Fauci on literally his last day in office.
On January 19, 2021, Trump offered dozens of people a special presidential commendation “in recognition of their exceptional efforts on Operation Warp Speed.” On the list: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, Dr. Deborah Birx, his son-in-law Jared Kushner… and Dr. Anthony Fauci.
But somehow, even though it’s Trump’s biggest campaign weakness, DeSantis has only knocked it on rare occasions.
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“We can never allow ‘Warp Speed’ to trump informed consent in this country ever again,” DeSantis told a low-key speech in Florida back in May.
And his campaign talked about the issue again this week—but only when asked by Fox News. “Voters know only a President DeSantis would ensure America is never locked down again,” said a statement from campaign spokesperson Carly Atchison.
Trump might not feel a need to respond to DeSantis, because he thinks he’s got the nomination sewn up. “In my opinion, he’s gone. He’s very low,” Trump told Hewitt.
But unless the party’s megadonors decide to dump him, Joe Biden isn’t going anywhere…and he’s campaigned against Trump’s handling of the coronavirus.
Biden has occasionally screamed that he didn’t lock down the country, and insisted Trump did.
And he recently campaigned against the jobs the COVID lockdowns destroyed.
“The guy who held his job before me was just one of two presidents in history … who left office with fewer jobs in America than when he got elected to office,” said Biden on Labor Day.
#LABORDAY: During his Labor Day speech in Philadelphia, PA, President Biden slammed former President Trump, stating, "The guy that held this job before me was just one of two Presidents in history…who left office with fewer jobs in America than when he got elected." pic.twitter.com/fn5xmlLiPh
— Forbes (@Forbes) September 4, 2023
You might laugh this off, but Donald Trump needs to listen, and listen good.
Trump is so vulnerable on this issue that Joe Biden — the Joe Biden who hid in his basement the entire 2020 campaign, who tried to institute a national vaccination mandate, and who even now is trying to bring back mask mandates — thinks he can win on it.
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Biden is a shameless hypocrite, but he knows he can honestly say:
Trump shut America down, I opened it.
Trump destroyed jobs; on my watch, (only some of them) came back.
Trump’s CDC pushed a mask mandate; mine lifted it.
He knows the media won’t hold him accountable…and so far, it doesn’t sound like Trump has formulated a response.
He still criticized DeSantis for closing Florida at all, and he said in the same interview that “Kristi Noem didn’t shut down South Dakota.”
Trump will campaign this weekend in South Dakota with Noem, who’s expected to endorse him for the 2024 presidential nomination. And Noem told Newsmax this week that she would agree to be Donald Trump’s running mate “in a heartbeat.”
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Does Trump plan to take Noem as vice president to compensate for his weak COVID record?
One thing is for sure: This issue isn’t going away. Do you think Trump needs a better answer?
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”