Sen. Scott on reopening economy: Americans know what to do, quit telling us how to lead our lives
Florida Senator Rick Scott tells ‘Fox and Friends’ it’s time for Americans to go back to work amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., reacted on Thursday to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blasting the media for its hostile coverage of his handling of the coronaviurs pandemic in his state, saying that “the media wants to attack Republicans and support Democrats.”
“But you know what? Floridians, we're smart, we've been through disasters, we listen, we social distanced, and that's why our numbers are way lower,” Scott told "Fox & Friends" on Thursday.
As of Thursday morning, Florida had reported 47,471 coronavirus cases and 2,096 deaths, according to data compiled by Fox News.
Scott made the comments one day after 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 reporters on Wednesday. "'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!"
He went on to say that Florida “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.”
New York reported 354,370 COVID-19 cases and 28,636 deaths as of Thursday morning, according to the data compiled by Fox News.
Scott also blasted New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his decision to keep the state mostly shutdown saying, “Quit telling us how to lead our lives, that's what Andrew Cuomo and these governors are trying to do.”
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“I mean, it doesn’t make any sense. We're smarter than that. Americans know what to do,” he continued, also criticizing New York's high taxes and poor fiscal policies for driving people away to places like Florida for years.
"Now he says all those people who moved to Florida, we still want them to pay off New York’s budget problems. We’re not doing it. I'm going to fight this. It is wrong for Floridians. Floridians have to pay for California, Illinois or New York excesses; that's wrong," he argued.
Scott made the comments reacting to a New York Post op-ed titled, “End New York City’s lockdown now!”
“By prolonging the coronavirus shutdown long after its core mission was accomplished, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have plunged tens of thousands of New Yorkers into poverty,” the op-ed said. “It needs to end. Now.”
When host Brian Kilmeade asked Scott if he thinks it’s time for the shutdown in New York to end he said, “Yes, absolutely.”
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“Let's get back to a job, let's get back to a normal life the way we wanted to do it,” he added.
Fox News Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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