Chuck Schumer knocks Florida Gov. DeSantis, says his dunk on media was 'premature'

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DeSantis says media won't give Florida credit for COVID-19 success because it 'challenges their narrative'

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushes back on media coverage of Florida's handling of the pandemic; media reporter for The Hill Joe Concha reacts and has a message for CNN host Chris Cuomo.

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Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke too soon when he criticized the media's dire predictions about his reopening strategy, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., argued on Thursday.

"What he’s saying is premature," Schumer told "The View." "Most of the experts say if this is going to come back because we moved too soon, it will take several months before that happens — July, August, September, October. And to compare New York and Florida is sort of like apples and oranges."

"We were the hot spot. We had more coronavirus cases than anybody else, and so I think you’ve got to be careful, and you’ve got to listen to the scientists. I don’t think name-calling of anybody is appropriate, but I do think, you know, getting out there and bragging that everything is fine is premature at best and could be dangerous if the disease comes back, and no one knows. We have had no experience with this virus in the past."

GOV. RON DESANTIS BLASTS MEDIA FOR PUSHING 'PARTISAN NARRATIVE' AMID POSITIVE VIRUS RESPONSE IN FL

"No one, not even the scientists know exactly how and when it comes back, but too many of them warn us if you move too fast, it will come back with a vengeance."

Speaking to reporters alongside Vice President Mike Pence this week, DeSantis touted Florida's improving data, citing Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House coronavirus task force, who called it the "absolutely best data" among every state in the country.

"So any insinuation otherwise is just typical, partisan narrative trying to be spun and part of the reason is that you've got a lot of people in your profession who waxed poetically for weeks and weeks about how Florida was going to be just like New York," DeSantis scolded the reporters. "'Wait two weeks, Florida is going to be next. Just like Italy, wait two weeks.' Well hell, we're eight weeks away from that and it hasn't happened!"

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DeSantis then pointed to Florida's "lower death rate" than states up north, in the Midwest and in the South, adding "I was the No. 1 landing spot from tens of thousands of people leaving the No. 1 hot zone in the world to come to my state," referring to New York City.

"And so we've succeeded and I think that people just don't want to recognize it because it challenges their narrative, it challenges their assumption, so they've got to try and find a boogeyman – maybe it's that black helicopter circling the Department of Health. If you believe that, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell ya," DeSantis said.

Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.