“Thanks to the mayor’s wishy-washy, lackluster leadership, we started off the pandemic as Florida’s hot spot — and we’re still the No. 1 culprit for the state’s rise in confirmed cases.”
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to threaten and take lives in Miami Dade, Corrupt Carlos continues to fail Floridians in his pandemic response.
A recent Miami Herald opinion piece lays out how Corrupt Carlos’ lack of leadership and failure in dealing with the pandemic led Miami Dade to be the “No.1 culprit for the state’s rise in confirmed [COVID-19] cases,” saying, “The mayor has botched the county’s entry into the coronavirus ‘new normal,’ buckling under political and public pressure to open too soon — and doing so without the proper enforcement of safety rules in place.”
At a time when the people of Miami Dade need relief amid a health and economic crisis, Corrupt Carlos is casting around blame for his incompetence and regurgitating the talking points of the Trump Administration that blame any increase in cases on increased testing and downplaying the threat.
“Corrupt Carlos Giménez’s response to COVID-19 can be summed up in one word: FAILURE,” said DCCC Spokesperson Fabiola Rodriguez. “Faced with political pressure, Gimenez carelessly reopened Miami Dade, without putting the proper measures in place or considering the dangerous ramifications. This virus is continuing to take lives and it won’t stop unless people like Giménez start treating it with the seriousness it requires. The people of Miami Dade deserve better.”
Miami Herald: Miami-Dade mayor deserves an ‘I told you so’ for botched coronavirus opening
KEY POINTS:
- The mayor has botched the county’s entry into the coronavirus “new normal,” buckling under political and public pressure to open too soon — and doing so without the proper enforcement of safety rules in place.
- Now we’re back to daily record-setting numbers of people infected, soaring positive test rates (from 8 percent to 20 percent by his own account), increases in hospitalizations that are taxing hospitals and healthcare workers and a death toll that has surpassed 4,000 in Florida. Yes, I’m going to go there, Mr. Mayor: I told you so.
- Thanks to the mayor’s wishy-washy, lackluster leadership, we started off the pandemic as Florida’s hot spot — and we’re still the No. 1 culprit for the state’s rise in confirmed cases.
- Journalists are calling Gimenez to account, and not to give him free advertising as he runs for Congress, as some campaign operatives have boasted.
- Five months into the pandemic, we are in a worse place than we were before reopening, making national headlines for being one of the 20-something states awash in red for rates of infection on coronavirus maps.
- But anchor Stephanie Ruhle called his bluff when he began to blame the spike on everyone and everything but himself: Memorial Day Weekend, the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, “some openings” and young people being young people.”
- It was laughable to hear him go on and on about people not wearing masks and violating the rules as if this were something new. It was happening in plain sight when he hastily opened the county — and repeatedly praised the people of Miami-Dade for following rules.
- Ruhle pointed out what critics have been saying all along: There’s a lack of clear, consistent messaging, a lack of transparency about how decisions are made and faulty communication.
- And, for good measure, Gimenez took a swipe at Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who rightly so, didn’t open businesses in the city of Miami when Gimenez lifted the lockdown on most businesses in the county, except construction, of course. Gimenez would never do that to his donor developer friends. No, he appoints the builders backing his congressional bid to serve as advisors to serve on his COVID working groups.
- Like the president, who has endorsed Gimenez’s congressional bid for the seat held by U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the mayor downplayed the risk coronavirus posed early in the crisis and has then lagged behind at every stage of the disease’s progress.
- And he’s now also behind on contact tracing, vital to slowing the continued surge of coronavirus cases. On that issue, he’s playing footsie with Gov. Ron DeSantis about who was supposed to do what.
- DeSantis continues to fail Florida, no surprise there. But Miami-Dade’s predicament? That’s all on Carlos Gimenez, no star at all, on and off the screen.
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