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Trump’s Oppo File on DeSantis Mostly Just His Pro-Vax Statements: NYT

The 2024 Republican primary is shaping up to be a fight over who can be the most anti-vax candidate.

As former President Donald Trump ramps up his bid to retake the White House, he’s also striking out at the Republican challenger most likely to unseat him: Ron DeSantis. As part of this effort, the Trump campaign team is building an opposition research file full of what they see as unflattering clips of the Florida governor—many of which are simply his past statements supporting the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, according to The New York Times. The party’s public health conversation has become so unhinged that Steve Bannon told the newspaper that anger over vaccine distribution efforts has overtaken nearly every other issue—and will be a key question in the upcoming GOP primary. To illustrate this point, a Trump surrogate shared some of the Trump team’s “opposition research”—including a video of DeSantis pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair at one of his state’s early vaccination sites. “He personally wheeled her to get jabbed,” the ally said derisively.