Florida Governor Ron DeSantis delivered a pointed rebuke at a press conference, criticizing former President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardon of Dr. Anthony Fauci. According to DeSantis, this move—which shields Fauci from federal charges—could spark fresh legal scrutiny at the state level, potentially undermining the former public health chief’s impunity.

A Question of Accountability

During the briefing, a reporter raised an important point: while Fauci is effectively insulated from federal prosecution, he remains vulnerable to state-level legal actions. Seizing the opportunity to address this issue, Governor DeSantis praised the “good question” before pivoting to recent developments that have further inflamed the debate. Among these were startling revelations from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

“I don’t know if you’ve seen this Elon Musk stuff,” DeSantis remarked. “They’ve flagged a commemoration at NIH headquarters—180,000 in number—for Fauci. What on earth are they celebrating? At best, you could call it a ‘Super Bowl of public health’—a catastrophic performance during a pandemic. And that’s before even getting into the whole mess of gain-of-function research and all the other questionable actions that contributed to this debacle.”