| | | | |  | | By Kimberly Leonard | | 
Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a meeting with President Donald Trump and White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Deborah Birx in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on April 28, 2020. | Doug Mills/The New York Times/Pool/Getty Images | Good morning from Washington and welcome to Tuesday. President JOE BIDEN’s 11th-hour preemptive pardon of ANTHONY FAUCI is ticking off Gov. RON DESANTIS. On his way out the door, the now-former president protected the longtime government employee from potential prosecution under President DONALD TRUMP, reopening old wounds for Florida’s governor. The Covid vaccine mandates, DeSantis said Monday on X, had been one of Biden's “greatest abuses of power,” and he accused Fauci of being the mandate’s “chief henchman.” Fauci, who retired in 2022, was Biden’s chief medical adviser during the pandemic and also led much of the Covid response toward the end of Trump’s first term. DeSantis clashed with Fauci throughout much of the Covid-19 pandemic. The scientist became such a provocative punching bag in the state that DeSantis’ 2022 gubernatorial race sold T-shirts and Koozies reading “Don’t Fauci my Florida.” "I'm just sick of seeing him,” DeSantis said in August 2022, as his gubernatorial reelection race heated up. “I know he says he's going to retire. Someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac.” In many ways, the pandemic posture helped the governor notch a record reelection win and then build the case among GOP voters and influencers that he should be the one to take on Trump in the presidential primary. DeSantis then used his Covid actions, which included reopening Florida earlier than other states and banning mask and vaccine mandates, as a key contrast in the race. While it didn’t work to get DeSantis to the White House, it did reshape the GOP political dialogue around the issue. Trump leaned into the opposition against vaccine mandates in his swearing-in speech on Monday, promising to reinstate and give back pay to roughly 8,000 members of the military who’d been dismissed for refusing a Covid shot, reports POLITICO’s Paul McLeary. The newly minted president on Monday afternoon also formally nominated JAY BHATTACHARYA — a Fauci critic who advised DeSantis — to be director of the National Institutes of Health. Though most Americans have moved on from the pandemic (even as lower percentages of people continue to get infected), the preemptive pardon is raising the issue again. Rep. GREG STEUBE (R-Fla.) suggested on X that the House Oversight Committee subpoena Fauci and others preemptively pardoned by Biden. “They can no longer use the 5th Amendment to protect themselves,” he said, referring to constitutional protections against self-incrimination. “If they didn’t do anything wrong, why did Biden pardon them?” In a statement to POLITICO’s Sophie Gardner and Carmen Paun, Fauci raised the threats that had been leveled against him and said he appreciated Biden’s actions. “Let me be perfectly clear: I have committed no crime and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me,” Fauci said, adding, however, that the “mere articulation of these baseless threats and the potential that they will be acted upon, create immeasurable and intolerable distress for me and my family.” Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget that Playbook should look at? Get in touch at: kleonard@politico.com.
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President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office as Barron Trump and Melania Trump watch during the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. | Pool photo by Kevin Lamarque | NEIGHBORHOOD HANGOUT — Playbook took in the inauguration on Monday from the warmth of the Florida House in D.C. — the only “state embassy” in the nation’s capital. The building overlooks the Capitol, giving out-of-town visitors a picturesque backdrop for selfies despite not being able to take in the inauguration from the National Mall due to the cold weather. The Florida House played the inauguration ceremony on Fox News and the room was jam-packed ahead of the ceremony. Floridians from the Panhandle to Miami-Dade County attended, though some people told Playbook they’d come into town from a blue state like California or Washington and just happened to be passing by before being welcomed inside. A table of free coffee, croissants, blueberry cake and orange juice greeted them. “If the inauguration had gone as originally planned, without the weather issues, I think maybe people would have just stopped by on their way to or from and that would have been great, because we could have just shown ... the house and shown them what a great opportunity they have here when they're in D.C.,” said Florida House Executive Director ROBERT WEISSERT. “But as it turned out, with things canceled at being so cold, people came and stayed, and that was wonderful too, because we were happy to have them.” Some of the most-cheered inauguration moments were when Trump declared his next presidency the “golden age of America” and that he was “saved by God to make America great again.” They cooed when Vice President JD VANCE’s children reached the lectern, laughed when Trump couldn’t quite plant a kiss on first lady MELANIA TRUMP’s cheek because her hat stood in the way and yelled “Bye!” when Biden and former Vice President KAMALA HARRIS reached their seats. “This is Florida now,” one attendee could be heard whispering as the ceremony came to a close.
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President Donald Trump signs executive orders after an inauguration parade at Capital One Arena in Washington, on Jan. 20, 2025. | Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO | SOUNDS A LOT LIKE FLORIDA — Trump on Inauguration Day drew on a lot of culture war battles that have overtaken Florida, promising in his address to “end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life” and deriding school curriculum that he said taught children “to hate our country.” One of Trump’s first executive orders makes it a policy to, as Trump put it, have “only two genders” — meaning that people will no longer have the option to check off “nonbinary” or “other” on federal documents such as passports and visas. The order will also eliminate allowing transgender women to be housed in prisons or migrant shelters that match their gender identity, reports POLITICO’s Ben Johansen. Another Trump executive order calls for “ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs” — something DeSantis also pushed for in schools and workplaces in Florida. MORE EXECUTIVE ORDERS …
— “Trump pardons Jan. 6 Florida rioters including Enrique Tarrio, commutes sentence for Joe Biggs,” by C.A. Briggs of USA Today Network-Florida. — The Palm Beach Post charted some key Florida-related inauguration moments on its live blog. One person the outlet noticed was in Washington over the weekend was Trulieve CEO KIM RIVERS. RESIGNED — MIKE WALTZ officially resigned from the House on Monday to become Trump’s national security adviser, a job that does not require Senate confirmation. Early voting started last weekend for the Jan. 28 primary to replace him. Trump has endorsed state Sen. RANDY FINE (R-Palm Bay) in the race. FOREIGN POLICY STATEMENT — As his guest to the inauguration, Sen. RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.) brought EDMUNDO GONZÁLEZ URRUTIA, whom the U.S. — under Biden and now Trump — recognized as the rightful winner of the 2024 presidential election in Venezuela, reports Florida Politics’ A.G. Gancarski. UNANIMOUS SUPPORT — MARCO RUBIO was sworn in as secretary of State on Monday after getting support from all his colleagues in the Senate. DESANTIS WHEREABOUTS — The governor was in the U.S. Capitol's spillover Emancipation Hall on Monday for the swearing-in ceremony and took some photos with other governors, but returned to Tallahassee that night rather than stick around for the numerous balls around Washington. DeSantis similarly didn’t party it up the night before. “He has little kids,” explained his spokesperson, JEREMY REDFERN. DeSantis of late has been posting about his son’s predictions for last night’s national championship. The governor also is staring down a rare winter storm forecasting freezing rain and snow in Florida, per the Tallahassee Democrat, and on Monday he declared a formal state emergency that said the storm was moving “across the Gulf of America.” (H/t Jennifer Cabrera of The Alachua Chronicle.) Gov’s takeaway: After the inauguration, DeSantis posted on X that there was “no time to waste” for Florida to pass new laws on illegal immigration. “We need to get to work,” DeSantis wrote. “We must seize this moment.” DOCS ON NEXT AG — “[Pam] Bondi lobbied for Tampa company that has active case against U.S. government,” reports Ben Wieder of the Miami Herald. “As a lobbyist for Ballard Partners, Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, represented the Tampa-based refrigerant company iGas USA, according to a newly filed financial disclosure. “That company filed a petition against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in September 2023 asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review an EPA rule. The EPA has been represented by an attorney from the Justice Department during the proceeding, which is ongoing.”
| | | | New Year. New Washington. New Playbook. With intensified congressional coverage and even faster delivery of policy scoops, POLITICO’s reimagined Playbook Newsletter ensures you’re always ahead of the conversation. Sign up today. | | | | | | | ... DATELINE TALLAHASSEE ... | | ICYMI — “U.S. prosecutors are charging former state Rep. Carolina Amesty with stealing from the federal government’s Covid-19 relief funds, the latest humiliating turn in the career of a woman once viewed as a rising star in the Florida GOP,” reports the Orlando Sentinel’s Skyler Swisher and Leslie Postal. “The 30-year-old Windermere Republican obtained $122,000 by fraudulently applying for pandemic relief funds in the name of two businesses, according to a criminal complaint filed [last week].”
| | PENINSULA AND BEYOND | | PR GUEST — Puerto Rico Gov. JENNIFFER GONZÁLEZ-COLÓN told Playbook in an interview over inauguration weekend that she plans to copy a good number of Florida’s economic policies as part of her agenda to bolster entrepreneurship, including reforming permits for businesses to be approved more quickly. (The governor took a selfie with DeSantis and Florida first lady CASEY DESANTIS ahead of Monday's Oath of Office ceremony.) González-Colón said she was looking forward to spending money on the island that Trump approved during his first presidency, especially to help build the electric grid whose shakiness had led to prolonged blackouts. González-Colón, of the more conservative New Progressive Party, netted a victory in Puerto Rico even after running on a pro-Trump ticket and amid the backlash when a comedian called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at a Trump rally shortly before the election. (Both she and the Trump campaign condemned the comments.) “The best example of how Hispanics and Latinos respond is what happened in Florida,” she said when asked about those comments. “People want a good economy, better jobs, good access to health care — so they're not looking into the past narrative or actresses or Hollywood actors or singers.” González-Colón also said she’d work to have a statue of Trump erected in San Juan at the Paseo de los Presidentes (translated “Walkway of the Presidents”), just like other past presidents who visited the island. “We are coordinating that,” she said. “We don’t know when that’ll be done, but he deserves that.”
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