Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced partnership for COVID-19 vaccine distribution with Publix grocery stores weeks after the company donated $ 100,000 to its PAC, CBS’s ’60 Minutes’ reported Sunday, with reference to records of the campaign funding. DeSantis and Publix deny any wrongdoing.
Why it matters: DeSantis has been criticized for targeting vaccines to wealthy communities, and some who have benefited from the vaccination pop-up are also donating to the governor’s political action committee, according to Axios Bay Tampa Bay spokesman Ben Montgomery.
A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted.
Send the news: The “60 Minutes” program highlights reports of “vaccine benefit,” with the poorer communities of Florida left behind, noting that there is no Publix in Belle Glade in Palm Beach County.
- State Democrat representative Omari Hardy told the show “you have a lot of people who do not have cars” in the community and that it is a return of more than two hours with 34 stops to the nearest Politix 25 km away.
- “I used to be able to call the director of public health tax. She would answer my calls. But if I now want to get my ingredient on how to get this vaccine, should I call a lobbyist from Publix? It makes no sense,” he said. Hardy added. . “They are not accountable to the public.”
Remarkable: ’60 Minutes’ aired footage of Sharyn Alfonsi, CBS, who confronted DeSantis at a press conference south of Orlando last month about the donation report, which DeSantis called ‘wrong’.
- Alfonsi says Melissa McKinlay, commissioner of Palm Beach County, said DeSantis “never met her about the Publix agreement.”
- It fell back on her exchange with DeSantis, with Alfonsi saying, “The criticism here is that it paid for the game, governor.”
- DeSantis calls the claim a false story, adding that he met with local officials to discuss options.
“We can do more throughput, we can give more to hospitals. We can do the Publix. And they said, ‘We think that would be the easiest thing for our residents.’
– DeSantis
For the record: The donation is the latest controversial political spending by Publix collaborators and beneficiaries.
- Heir Julie Jenkins Fancelli donated about $ 300,000 to fund the protest that preceded the U.S. Capitol riot, the Montgomery and Selene San Felice report from Axios Tampa Bay.
- The popular grocery chain employs 225,000 people and made $ 38.1 billion in retail sales in 2019, according to Montgomery and San Felice, reporters say.
What they say: Publix said in a statement to CBS: ‘The irresponsible suggestion that there is a link between contributions to the campaign’ to DeSantis and ‘our willingness to join other pharmacies’, which supports Florida’s vaccination of vaccines, is ‘absolutely false and offensive’.
- “We are proud of our drugstores for pharmacies because they have so far administered more than 1.5 million doses of vaccine and that they have joined other retailers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia to do our part to help our communities emerge from the pandemic, “the statement added.
- Representatives from DeSantis, Publix and CBS did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to explain that the closest Politix to Belle Glade is 40 km away.