ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis threatened CBS with unspecified “consequences” over Sunday’s “60 Minutes” story about coronavirus vaccine favoritism, saying he was “going to bite back and hold (CBS) accountable.”
“What they’re saying is a total crock, that somehow only Publix was getting (the vaccine) is nonsense,” DeSantis said at a news conference in the Panhandle on Tuesday, as he denied again that the grocery giant’s $100,000 contribution to his campaign influenced vaccine decisions. “And we told them it was that and they cut it out. They spliced it because they can’t handle the truth. ... So they went for the smear.”
“This is not over by any stretch of the imagination,” DeSantis added.
But the bulk of the report, which generally rehashed earlier stories reported in Florida, actually pointed out the disparity in how vaccines were administered in Palm Beach County, with the rich jumping to the front of the line over low-income residents who live 25 miles or more from a Publix.
DeSantis and the Republican Party’s fierce pushback against the story also sidestepped the issue of vaccination sites set up in wealthy senior communities developed by DeSantis donor Pat Neal, which were also mentioned in the “60 Minutes” piece.
“There was an apparent weakness in the CBS presentation on which they have seized in an attempt to counter the main thrust of (the story),” said Mac Stipanovich, a Tallahassee consultant and anti-Trump Republican turned independent. “They are majoring on the minors in order to avoid a detailed discussion of the overall issue of vaccination pay-to-play.”
DeSantis and the state GOP have pointed to denials of Publix favoritism from Democrat Jared Moskowitz, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, as well as Democratic Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner saying the report was “based on bad information (and) was intentionally false.”
But Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay, who represents the poorer Glades area of the county, countered Kerner on Twitter.
“I’m not getting into the pay-to-play argument,” McKinlay wrote. “That wasn’t my concern. My concern was (the) lack of Publix in Glades, which I warned State about PRIOR to Publix-only decision.”
DeSantis and the state GOP have also criticized “60 Minutes” for the implication that Publix was the only pharmacy distributor of the vaccine in the state by not including that CVS and Walgreens also were early administrators of the vaccine.
Those other pharmacies, though, were initially only giving shots in nursing homes when the Publix program began in early January. The Publix program was also criticized at the time for focusing on Republican-leaning counties except for Palm Beach.
The state does not have a contract with Publix, which has denied any connection between the $100,000 contribution and the vaccine program and has stressed it has been part of the federal government’s pharmacy vaccine program. The lack of a state contract was only revealed following an Orlando Sentinel public information request.
DeSantis’ focus on rebutting the Publix allegation, which included his defense of Publix as “one of the most popular brands in the state,” ignored the vaccine favoritism allegations in the three Southwest Florida properties owned by Neal, as well as similar allegations involving a wealthy development in Key Largo not mentioned in the “60 Minutes” story.
DeSantis has also denied those allegations, for which state Democrats have called for a federal investigation.
The issues with parts of the story are “an opportunity for them (Republicans), but it’s not going to undo the damage that was done,” Stipanovich said.
DeSantis’ office and CBS did not return requests for comment.
