Florida governor rebuts vaccine 'pay-to-play' report on CBS

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed back aggressively Tuesday against a “60 Minutes” report that suggested he initially made a deal to distribute COVID-19 vaccines in a South Florida county at Publix Super Markets pharmacies because the company made a donation to his political action committee.

The Republican governor warned of unspecified “consequences” over the report that aired Sunday night on CBS, which stood behind the story. The report focused on the vaccine rollout in Palm Beach County and also suggested Florida’s vaccine distribution had generally favored the wealthy and well-connected.

“These are smear merchants,” DeSantis said during a news conference in Panama City. “They knew what they were doing was a lie.”

The governor said his office had offered people to be interviewed about Florida’s vaccine rollout for the report but the news show declined. He called the “pay-to-play" allegations in the report, “lies built on lies."

CBS said in a statement that “60 Minutes" interviewed dozens of people about the story and requested interviews with DeSantis, who declined, and Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz, who declined to be interviewed on camera until after the story's deadline.

“When Florida state data revealed people of color were vaccinated at a much lower rate than their wealthier neighbors, ‘60 Minutes' reported the facts surrounding the vaccine’s rollout, which is controlled by the governor," the CBS statement said. “For over 50 years, the facts reported by ‘60 Minutes' have often stirred debate and prompted strong reactions. Our story Sunday night speaks for itself."

On Monday, Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner, a Democrat, issued a statement that accused “60 Minutes” of using “intentionally false”...