“I guess I should have been at the beach in Delaware": Ron DeSantis responds to critics

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis responded to critics who accused him of vacationing when he was accompanying his wife throughout her cancer treatments during the holidays.

“I guess I should have been at the beach in Delaware. They would have been really happy about that,” he said.

Critics accused DeSantis of being absent and reducing his number of public appearances instead of dealing with the rise of Covid-19 cases in Florida. At the time, the seven-day average of daily infections in Florida increased from 8,785 to 30,356.

Jerry Demings, Mayor of Orange County, Florida, criticized the governor in a press conference. He said Florida residents “should be outraged” at DeSantis’ disappearance amid the rising number of Covid cases.

"Our residents, all Florida residents should be outraged, and they should ask the question, 'Now, where's our state? Where's our governor?'” he said. "Where is Ron DeSantis now? When was the last time you saw the governor do a press briefing regarding COVID-19?"

Senator Shervin Jones also criticized DeSantis’ absence from the public spotlight on Twitter, claiming that the state’s leadership had gone MIA.

Counties are overwhelmed w/ lines that stretch for miles, @GovRonDeSantis said FL will not open state run testing sites, @HealthyFla has basically declared the pandemic is over, and FL has over 46K COVID cases today. It’s every man/woman for themselves, because leadership is MIA.

— Shevrin “Shev” Jones (@ShevrinJones) December 30, 2021

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also criticized DeSantis’ actions on social media. “Hasn’t Gov. DeSantis been inexplicably missing for like 2 weeks?” she tweeted.

“And I just looked at my wife. I’m like, going to the hospital with you is not a vacation for you, I know that. And it’s not a vacation; this is something that as a husband, I think that I should be doing,” responded DeSantis to his critics.

DeSantis’ wife, Casey, was diagnosed with breast cancer in October.

“I have accompanied her to all her chemotherapy treatments, and she’s there for a long time. I’m there most of the time. It’s a draining thing,” DeSantis said. “When she’s done with it, you know, it’s not something that’s great to see. And so, I just think a lot of people, particularly people who have gone through breast cancer treatments, the notion that that would be considered a vacation, I think, is offensive to a lot of those folks.”