WATCH: Bill Kristol Wants Ron DeSantis Held Accountable For Anti-Vax Demagoguery

Ron DeSantis is “not an unintelligent person,” says Bill Kristol, who’s now heading the Republican Accountability Project. Instead, he says that the Florida Governor is very aware of the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccines, and that he’s just engaging in demagoguery, supporting anti-vax legislation and rhetoric.

In fact, Kristol describes DeSantis as standing by and allowing bad-faith anti-vax arguments to spread, even appearing to endorse them. Ultimately, he says, he hopes that DeSantis is held accountable.

RAP Dir. @BillKristol reacts to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ anti-vaccine sentiment:

“DeSantis…is not an unintelligent person, and he’s being a total demagogue.” pic.twitter.com/UmjurpO4F6

— The Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) October 27, 2021

“DeSantis..is not an unintelligent person, he’s being a total demogogue, and he of course himself got vaccinated…he recommends to people that they follow the advice of physicians, which would normally mean to get vaccinated, but he’s played footsies at least with anti-vax people.”

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Kristol describes this as one of the reasons for a two-party system, saying that when someone of one party does something wrong, it’s the job of the other party to hold them accountable, and that he hopes it happens in DeSantis’ case.

DeSantis has held press conferences where he has said positive things about vaccination and its protective properties, but he also continues to fight against all potential protective measures. For instance, he hasn’t merely opposed mask mandates in school, but actually attempted to take away the option from individual schools and districts, even threatening to withhold funding from schools that require students to wear masks.

He’s waging a similar battle on vaccine mandates, under the guise of supporting “personal freedom,” and to the clear detriment of his constituents. Though the most recent surge in the state seems to be abating, the Miami Herald reports that as of last Friday‘s report, the state had lost 273 people to the virus out of every 100,000 in the population.