‘Bully’ Ron DeSantis ‘mistakes bluster for bravery’ and is really a ‘coward’: journalist

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sunk to a new low on Wednesday, March 2 when, during a press conference at the University of South Florida, he berated a group of high school students for wearing protective face masks. Journalist Anthony L. Fisher slams “bully” DeSantis for his “cheap” theatrics in a scathing op-ed published by the Daily Beast on March 3, arguing that although the MAGA governor is trying to “project strength,” he is really a “coward.”

DeSantis told the high school students, “You do not have to wear those masks. I mean, please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything, and we’ve gotta stop with this COVID theater. So, if you want to wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous.”

The COVID-19 pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, has killed more than 5.9 million people worldwide — including over 950,000 residents of the United States. So, it makes sense that the students are still taking precautions.

DeSantis’ actions, Fisher writes, show how much of a “bully” he is.

“The whole episode was barely ten seconds long, but DeSantis got his point across,” Fisher explains. “With his words, tone and body language — he let them know who’s boss. By asking them to take their masks off, he implicitly ordered them to do so. And then, by saying ‘if you want to wear it, fine,’ he pretended to respect someone’s decision to wear a mask, before immediately undercutting any supposed sincerity by adding ‘but this is ridiculous’…. And lest the governor’s hectoring be misunderstood, DeSantis telegraphed his anti-mask vice-signaling by letting out an exasperated sigh and shaking his head when he finally took the podium.”

Fisher goes on to say that DeSantis, like former President Donald Trump, “mistakes bluster for bravery.”

“It’s craven and weak to hector kids in order to score cheap political points,” Fisher emphasizes. “It’s also OK to oppose mask mandates, while also not reacting to the sight of teenagers wearing masks as if it’s a societal disgrace and a personal insult. But that’s not Big DeSantis Strength.”

Fisher continues, “Instead, the governor treated the nervous students as if they’re the ‘lamestream media’ or ‘big pharma’ or whatever boogeyman he’s chasing for political clout this week. He behaved as if they’re the problem he’s fighting. And he surely knew they were a captive audience to his rant and wouldn’t dare talk back to him. That’s a bully move. And bullies are cowards.”

DeSantis, Fisher adds, “is such a coward, so terrified of his own party’s anti-COVID vaccine base, that he won’t say one way or the other if he’s received a booster shot.” Trump was obviously referring to DeSantis when, during an appearance on One America News (OAN), he criticized politicians who are too “gutless” to say whether or not they have been vaccinated for COVID-19.

“A bully and a coward himself, Trump knows ‘gutless’ when he sees it,” Fisher writes. “DeSantis is a big loud alpha when it comes to using kids as props in his anti-mask tantrum, but he’s a sheepish beta when it comes to risking the wrath wrought by Republican voters’ anti-vaccine sensitivities.”