Democrat Nikki Fried appeared on Morning Joe, condemning the “public corruption” of Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ “pay to play” vaccine distribution and reiterating calls for a federal investigation of a process she claims is poisoned by politics. Fried already has taken these concerns to the FBI and to Congress.
She noted also that, even if D.C eventually decides her concerns fall short of investigation, that the Governor is “up for reelection in 2022.”
Fried, the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, has energetically contended that the Republican Governor has steered COVID-19 vaccinations to donors and supporters, and Morning Joe offered a platform for more of the same. As before, she criticized a vaccination pod in tony Ocean Reef, where resident and former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner donated $250,000 to the Governor’s “Friends of Ron DeSantis” political committee, with other locals donating also.
“We’ve seen what’s happening,” Fried said, with the Ocean Reef vaccination pod “just the last of the instances.”
Fried noted that vaccinations had been steered to “very exclusive zip codes” in Charlotte and Manatee counties, purportedly for the benefit of “wealthy donors giving money to DeSantis and the Republican Party.”
“These are fact patterns that are persistent,” Fried said, contending that “where there’s smoke, there’s typically fire.”
“If this isn’t public corruption on its face, I don’t know what is,” Fried contended.
Though the Commissioner says she has “contacted the FBI and given our factual information that we know,” she clearly is moving forward with the argument on an extrajudicial track, with Florida voters rendering the ultimate verdict next November.
Fried vows to “make sure the public understands what is happening, that this is corruption even if the FBI finds no criminal activity.”
“It is going to go to public opinion,” Fried conceded, after Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg cautioned that there may be no criminal case.
“He is back up for reelection as Governor in 2022, and the people are now aware that this is ‘pay to play’ politics in the state of Florida and, quite frankly, public corruption at its worst.”
Fried, according to a recent Mason Dixon poll, faces long odds in a hypothetical General Election face-off against DeSantis, who has emerged as a star of the conservative movement. But she continues to say that she is mulling the race and that many people are offering encouragement.
This article first appeared at Florida Politics.
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This article appears in Mar 4-10, 2021.