Republican Florida governor Ron Desantis has received a lot of heat after his interview on 60-minutes, recently. 60 Minutes seemed to accuse Desantis of ‘pay-for-play’ favoritism when choosing Publix, which had donated $100,000 to his campaign, to administer novel Wuhan CCP Virus ‘vaccinations.’
However, additional information has come to light proving that the 60-Minutes story was just biased propaganda. Once known for investigative journalism, 60-Minutes, in this case, intentionally and selectively edited the interview with Desantis in order to make smear him. Because of this obvious and erroneous smear campaign, even some Democrats in Florida are standing up for Desantis.
Jared Moskowitz, who is a former Democrat state senator, called the 60-Minutes interview “…just absolute malarkey,” while Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner called it “intentionally false” reporting.
Concerning the interview, The Epoch Times reports:
“In one heated exchange, a reporter pressed Gov. Ron DeSantis on the use of Publix stores to administer vaccines, claiming that the fact Publix contributed $100,000 to his political action committee before the chain was chosen could be seen as evidence of a “pay-for-play” scheme.
DeSantis called the allegation “a fake narrative,” offering a lengthy explanation of what had unfolded. It included state officials reaching out to pharmacies besides CVS and Walgreens because those two companies were tasked with delivering vaccines to long-term care facilities. Publix was the first to say they were ready for the second set of distribution and administration.
DeSantis also said he visited four different Publix stores during a trial run and found feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and that he solicited advice from Palm Beach officials.
“Here’s some of the options: we can do more drive-through sites, we can give more to hospitals, we can do the Publix, we can do this. They calculated that 90 percent of their seniors live within a mile and a half of a Publix. And they said, ‘We think that would be the easiest thing for our residents,’” he said.
“60 Minutes” omitted 356 words from DeSantis’ 423-word answer.
The reporter then repeated her “pay for play” accusation.
“I just disabused you of the narrative. And you don’t care about the facts,” DeSantis said.”
Due to the blatant omissions and editing in the interview in order to smear Publix, Desantis, and Florida’s Wuhan CCP Virus response, the backlash has been massive:
“Jared Moskowitz, a former Democrat state senator who now runs the state Division of Emergency Management, said in a tweet late Sunday that Publix was recommended by his agency “as the other pharmacies were not ready to start.”
“No one from the Governors office suggested Publix. It’s just absolute malarkey,” he added.
In a statement on Monday, Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner, a Democrat, said the “60 Minutes” reporting was “intentionally false.”
“I know this because I offered to provide my insight into Palm Beach County’s vaccination efforts and 60 minutes declined,” he said, adding that he and other officials asked the governor to expand the state’s partnership with Publix, as opposed to the other way around.
“We asked and he delivered,” Kerner wrote. “They had that information, and they left it out because it kneecaps their narrative.””
And, this wouldn’t be the first time 60-Minutes fabricated stories in order to suit a narrative.
“…in 2004, it broadcast documents that were allegedly penned by President George W. Bush’s former commanding officer. However, the documents were later found to be forged. An internal probe found staffers failed to do due diligence in vetting the documents, and a number of workers resigned. CBS also aired footage from Italy when reporting on COVID-19 hospitalizations in New York City last year.
Publix, in a statement to news outlets, called the suggestion of a link between campaign contributions and the vaccination efforts “irresponsible.”
“We are proud of our pharmacy associates for administering more than 1.5 million doses of vaccine to date and for joining other retailers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia to do our part to help our communities emerge from the pandemic,” it added.
Florida had administered over 10.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses as of April 5, one of the highest totals in the nation. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
Some other officials did say the reporting on Sunday regarding Florida was concerning.
…“Seniors were prioritized for vaccine, DeSantis was criticized for breaking from CDC and he turned out to be right,” Florida GOP Vice Chairman Christian Ziegler said in a tweet. “Now, in the name of 2024, the media is generating a new narrative to attack.””
