Ron DeSantis: '60 Minutes' faces backlash from Democrats and Publix for critical story on Florida's vaccine rollout

As half of a bigger story about Florida’s vaccine rollout, the famend newsmagazine program spotlighted a latest $100,000 donation that Publix made to DeSantis’ re-election bid.

The story, by correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, urged there was a doable hyperlink between the donation and the state’s partnership with Publix shops for vaccine distribution — a critical concern of foul play, if true.

However, past spotlighting the general public finance information, “60 Minutes” by no means provided any substantive proof to help the numerous assertion and hyperlink the donation with the partnership.

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After the report aired, the Democratic director of the Florida Division of Emergency Administration and Democratic county mayor of Palm Seashore County each publicly responded, saying that partnering with Publix was not urged by anybody from DeSantis’ workplace.

In a Sunday night time tweet directed at “60 Minutes,” Florida Division of Emergency Administration Director Jared Moskowitz wrote, “I mentioned this earlier than and I will say it once more. [Publix] was advisable by [Florida Division of Emergency Management] and [Florida Department of Public Health]. Interval! Full cease!”

“Nobody from the Governors workplace urged Publix,” Moskowitz added. “It is simply absolute malarkey.”

Palm Seashore County Mayor Dave Kerner provided an identical sentiment in a Monday assertion.

“I watched the 60 Minutes section on Palm Seashore County final night time and really feel compelled to concern this assertion,” Kerner mentioned.

Kerner accused “60 Minutes” of reporting “deliberately false” info, saying that this system knew DeSantis had met with him and that the county had been the entity to request “to increase the state’s partnership with Publix.”

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Publix additionally issued an announcement to criticize the assertion, however the grocery store chain didn’t point out “60 Minutes” by identify.

“The irresponsible suggestion that there was a connection between marketing campaign contributions made to Governor DeSantis and our willingness to hitch different pharmacies in help of the state’s vaccine distribution efforts is totally false and offensive,” Publix mentioned Monday.

In a Monday afternoon assertion, DeSantis’ workplace mentioned, “Florida partnered with Publix as a result of they have been able to administer the vaccine of their pharmacies in a matter of days, whereas different pharmacies weren’t prepared.”

“Not using this partnership with Publix as quickly as doable would have been malpractice,” the governor’s workplace added, “particularly because the state was racing to vaccinate as many individuals as doable, as shortly as doable.”

A spokesperson for “60 Minutes” defended the story the newsmagazine aired.

In a short assertion, the spokesperson targeted particularly on criticism “60 Minutes” obtained for not airing a portion of an encounter DeSantis had with Alfonsi at a press convention by which he identified to her that CVS and Walgreens — underneath a federal program — have been the primary pharmacies within the state to distribute vaccines.

“As we all the time do for readability, 60 Minutes used the portion of the Governor’s over 2-minute response that straight addressed the query from the correspondent,” the spokesperson mentioned.

The spokesperson additionally mentioned that this system requested for an precise interview with DeSantis twice, however that he declined.