'My bad': National teacher's union president backpedals after tweeting Gov. Ron DeSantis would cause 'millions' to die in Florida because of his 'ignorance' on COVID
The head of America's second-largest teacher's union walked back her criticism of Florida's governor less than 24 hours after she said 'millions' would die because of his COVID-19 'ignorance.'
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, retweeted a Washington Post article about anti-Dr. Anthony Fauci merchandise being sold on the Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis's official website.
'Disgusting. Millions of Floridians are going to die for Ron DeSantis’ ignorance and he’s choosing to profit from it. He doesn’t care about Floridians; he cares about furthering his own cruel agenda,' Weingarten tweeted.
After facing backlash for her comments, she backpedaled and said in a new tweet, 'You are all probably right… I shouldn’t have said millions.. I should have just said DeSantis was wrong to do this.
'Fauci is an amazing public servant. He shouldn’t be mocked. But I shouldn’t engage in that kind of hyperbole either. My bad…'
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, walked back her comments ripping Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
Among the anti-Fauci items being sold on DeSantis' website are beer koozies and t-shirts mocking Fauci's coronavirus restrictions.
The red koozies have the words: 'How the hell am I going to be able to drink a beer with a mask on?' along with blue koozies imprinted with the words: 'Don't Fauci my Florida.'
The phrase is a jab at the Chief White House medical adviser, who has become the butt of jokes for Republicans due to his preventative approach to the deadly coronavirus and mask-wearing.
While DeSantis didn't publicly engage with Weingarten on Twitter, his press secretary, Christina Pushaw, did.
'Florida’s COVID death rate is lower than the national average, and unlike the Governor of New York, we don’t fudge the numbers. Meanwhile, Randi Weingarten ruined the education of millions of kids by keeping them out of school for more than a year based on a conspiracy theory,' Pushaw tweeted.
The 'conspiracy' Pushaw mentioned was former Florida data scientist Rebekah Jones, 30, who claimed she was fired for refusing to fudge the state's covid infection numbers.
Pushaw tweeted a May 25 National Review story with the headline 'Randi Weingarten Endorses Debunked Rebekah Jones Claim That Florida Manipulated COVID Data.'
Florida was among the first states to completely reopen schools during the pandemic.
In total, there have been about 2.3 million total COVID-19 cases in the state and more than 38,000 COVID-related deaths.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is pictured here listening to a news conference following a round table on Cub on July 13
Christina Pushaw, DeSantis' press secretary, tweeted this in response to Weingarten's criticism
DeSantis is gaining in popularity among the conservative and Republican crowd, especially in light of his strong stances on people's right to choose to get vaccinated or wear a mask and his handling of the building collapse in Miami.
Over the weekend, DeSantis garnered 21percent of the votes cast in the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas to be the 2024 GOP presidential candidate.
He trailed only Donald Trump, who got 70percent, and was the only candidate to get more than 1percent.
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