DeSantis cabinet member trolls Michigan's Whitmer over travel mess by sending tourism pamphlets
Florida's chief financial officer mailed Gov. Gretchen Whitmer a stack of Visit Florida brochures after she was caught traveling to the state she'd warned residents to avoid.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis sent Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer dozens of Visit Florida tourism pamphlets, according to Fox News, after Whitmer faced backlash for traveling to Florida despite having urged Michigan residents against out-of-state travel amid rising COVID-19 cases.
Whitmer initially denied the trip, telling reporters "I was here in town the whole time" before it was revealed she had traveled to Florida, Fox News reported. Her chief operating officer, Tricia Foster, and health director, Elizabeth Hertel, also traveled despite the governor's own advisory, according to the same reporting.
In his letter, Patronis wrote: "As both you and your COO now know from personal experience, Florida is safe for travel," and added, "I know members of your team are telling you to downplay Florida. Don't listen to them," per Fox News.
The framing from Florida's side
Patronis closed the letter needling Whitmer to "don't be a stranger!" and "See you again soon," according to Fox News, in a message that leaned into pointing out the state's vaccination progress at the time: "With over 5 million Floridians vaccinated, unlike a lot of other states, Florida has largely returned to normal."
Who sent the letter
Patronis, a Republican, had served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2006 to 2014 representing the state's panhandle before Gov. Rick Scott appointed him to the Florida Public Service Commission in 2015, according to background retrieved on his career. He was appointed Florida's chief financial officer in 2017, a role in which he oversees the state's accounting, auditing and unclaimed-property functions and sits on the Florida Cabinet's board overseeing the Office of Insurance Regulation -- giving the tourism-pamphlet stunt an added edge, since it came from one of the state's own top financial regulators rather than a purely political messaging office.
What was in the package
Patronis mailed pamphlets covering more than 20 Florida tourism destinations, including Walt Disney World, Cocoa Beach and the Citrus Golf Trail, according to the Detroit News' reporting on the letter, which he posted publicly on April 26, 2021. The letter also leaned on Florida's COVID-19 vaccination progress at the time as part of its needling: "With over 5 million Floridians vaccinated, unlike a lot of other states, Florida has largely returned to normal."
How Whitmer's office responded
Whitmer's office did not directly rebut Patronis' letter but pushed back on the broader wave of criticism over the Florida trips. Spokesman Bobby Leddy dismissed a related partisan attack site as a "garbage white nationalist website" and said of the governor's chief operating officer, who had also traveled, that "Trish Foster is fully recovered from COVID and fully vaccinated," according to reporting retrieved on the episode.
The retrieved reporting does not include a response from Whitmer's office addressed specifically to Patronis' pamphlet mailing, nor does it detail whether her office adjusted its own travel guidance for staff following the episode.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by Fox News and the Detroit News. It restores a story originally published on this site in April 2021; figures are as reported at the time.