Democratic Florida gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried complained to CNN host Poppy Harlow on Friday that her “greatest weakness” in her run against Governor DeSantis (R) is his national audience.
“You know, I think my greatest weakness is the fact that right now Ron is on a platform on the national stage and so he’s getting a lot of national PR, but the greatest — but we are going to take that and turn it into a positive,” Fried tacitly whined to the CNN talking head about running against DeSantis.
Harlow embarrassingly and shockingly pointed out to Fried that she was complaining about DeSantis’ national reach while on a national platform… CNN.
“You just had about seven or eight minutes on a national platform, CNN,” Harlow told the embattled Florida commissioner of agriculture.
That surprising exchange followed Fried baselessly criticizing DeSantis’ handling of the pandemic even though COVID cases have plummeted in the state and the local economy is inarguably booming there. Employment is also doing extremely well in Florida, a fact that Harlow highlighted to Fried, informing the Democrat that the state “has a 4.8 percent unemployment rate, well below the national average” and that the state’s “per capita death rate from COVID-19 is 27th, nowhere near the highest.”
EMBARRASSING segment for @NikkiFried who says her biggest weakness is not having a national profile like @RonDeSantisFL.
No surprise considering she clearly isn’t ready for prime time.@PoppyHarlowCNN takes her to task on Dem losses in FL statewide races & being wrong on COVID. pic.twitter.com/deS0inQWWJ
— Joanna Rodriguez (@joannamrod) June 18, 2021
“Do you think he deserves credit for that?” Harlow asked Fried, who is no stranger to making herself the target of mockery.
Fried shot back that DeSantis doesn’t deserve any credit and accused him of taking a “hands-off approach.”
“No, I don’t think he deserves credit. He had a very laissez-faire, hands-off approach to COVID. There was a lack of transparency throughout the entire pandemic. It’s our private businesses and local governments that stepped up. Ron, the entire time, was not only not empathetic but was very confusing on the way he was leading our state,” she spouted.
Harlow surprisingly disagreed with the Florida Democrat, noting that DeSantis was “one of the quickest governors to move to lock down the nursing homes, the opposite of what happened here in New York.”
Confused by the lack of support from the liberal leftist pundit, Fried proceeded to claim in a tone-deaf manner with no self-awareness in evidence that DeSantis had not been specific enough on what people should do.
Harlow once again pushed back against Fried’s assertions backing her into a political corner.
“I’m just asking you, commissioner, since you’re running to be governor of Florida, about the hard data… you can’t argue that the unemployment rate in Florida right now is half what it is in New York and California, and it is 27th on the list when you look at COVID deaths,” she pressed. “My question is, all your criticism of him saying he didn’t shut down soon enough, calling for mask mandates statewide, looking at the data, did he have it right, and did you have it wrong?”
Fried nevertheless did argue against the “hard data.”
“No, and I go back to what the local governments did,” she defensively retorted trying to recover her composure during the interview and failing. “The governor didn’t do a mask mandate, the local governments did. That is what slowed down the spread of the virus.”
Twitter was not impressed with Fried’s attacks on DeSantis:
Can you file an ethics complaint against her for misuse of her official office?
— FloridaDame (@Fantine21) June 18, 2021
Not ready for prime time?
She’s not ready for cable access at 3am
— Shay Patrick Cormac (@ShayCormac_1) June 19, 2021
How did this happen on @CNN ? I’m sure heads will roll…
— Mike Davis (@Minizorg) June 19, 2021
So CNN found and interviewed the only Democrat in FL who was trying to get her 15 mins of fame by bashing the MOST popular man in the United States 🤦🏻♀️. Will they ever figure it out?
— whats your emergency (@piscespatriot1) June 18, 2021
When you’re a D and you’ve lost CNN…
— treyinathens (@treyinathens) June 18, 2021
Please no. Desantis has been a bright star during this Covid nightmare . If Nikki were our governor we would have closed schools and endless useless mask mandates.
— NEP (@NPool26) June 18, 2021
Fried got fried by reality.
— TradeMax77 (@Max77Trade) June 19, 2021
@NikkiFried is a joke and has no chance against @GovRonDeSantis
Look at Poppy’s face while Nikki talks
😂😂😂— Sam Rosario🗽🇵🇷 (@SammyRosario13) June 18, 2021
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