Mika Brzezinski: Ron DeSantis’ ‘Weak, Feckless Leadership’ Will Cost People’s Lives

MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski had some stark criticism of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday. In a wide ranging conversation about governors’ approach to the Covid-19 pandemic, Brzezinski warned that the Florida Republican’s slow response would cost lives.

“It was the President that got the warnings back in January,” co-host Joe Scarborough said. “It was the President who has, actually, a secretary of Health and Human Services who tried to talk to him starting early January. The President wouldn’t talk to him for two weeks about the Coronavirus. When he did, all he wanted to talk about vaping.”

“The President had everybody around him in the White House in January warning him about this, and he kept ignoring it, of course, and said, I’m gonna push it off to the states,” he said.

“Well, there’s not a state approach to a pandemic. It’s a national crisis. That pandemic sweeps across country lines. It sweeps across state lines. It impacts people whether Republicans or Democrats, whether they’re in red states or blue states. And taking this piecemeal, patchwork approach to a pandemic doesn’t work.”

“The other risk is that it’s not like every governor is Governor Cuomo,” Brzezinski said. “You had DeSantis in Florida, weak, feckless leadership. Waiting for directives from the government. Literally waiting as people went to the beaches. I mean, this decision by this governor in Florida, waiting for Trump to tell him what to do, is going to lead to people losing their lives.”

“He should have done more. He should have been engaged. He should have understood the virus. He didn’t,” Brzezinski said.

“And then there’s this. Georgia’s governor also relented and issued a statewide order after the southwestern part of the state was identified as a national hot spot. And get this. In a stunning admission, Governor Brian Kemp said he only just learned that asymptomatic people can transmit the virus.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.