![\"Florida](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MIA_103FloridaGOP27NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"Florida")
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Florida Gubernatorial Candidate Paul Renner speaks during the Republican Party of Florida Sunshine State Showdown event, at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida on Saturday, June 27, 2026.<\/p>\n
Pedro Portal<\/p>\n
pportal@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
TALLAHASSEE<\/p>\n
Former House Speaker Paul Renner is attempting to climb up the polls and drag down U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds in the Republican gubernatorial primary, but he\u2019s also trained his sights at Dr. Anthony Fauci.<\/p>\n
Fauci, who was a top medical advisor to President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden during the COVID-19 pandemic, garnered headlines this week for invoking his Fifth Amendment right not to testify before a Congressional hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas he involved in helping a foreign adversary to produce a deadly weapon basically that was unleashed on the rest of us?\u201d Renner asked in an interview with the News Service of Florida.<\/p>\n
Renner was referring to the allegation the National Institute of Health helped fund gain of function research, which tests how altered viruses act in the real world, at a lab in Wuhan, the Chinese city that saw the first outbreak of COVID-19. Fauci was a leader at NIH for decades and has previously denied the agency funded such research.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he did something that would be an act of treason, fundamentally, because tens of millions of people died from COVID \u2014 so he killed a lot more than serial killers and we know what we do to serial killers in Florida,\u201d Renner said. \u201cHe needs to be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other Republican gubernatorial hopefuls have slammed Fauci in a similar way.<\/p>\n
Lt. Gov. Jay Collins called Fauci \u201cone of the greatest mass murderers in American history.\u201d Donalds has criticized Fauci as well, but noted former U.S. Rep. David Jolly, the frontrunner for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, has praised his efforts during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn David Jolly\u2019s Florida, frauds like Anthony Fauci are put in charge. Not in my Florida,\u201d Donalds posted on X on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Aug. 18 primary is less than three weeks away.<\/p>\n
Renner said Donalds is ignoring base Republican voters in his campaign, especially by refusing to debate him, Collins and conservative activist and investor James Fishback.<\/p>\n
But he also acknowledged Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is term-limited, hasn\u2019t helped consolidate a coalition to defeat Donalds, who is the GOP frontrunner who has been endorsed by Trump. DeSantis, while being critical of Donalds, hasn\u2019t endorsed anyone else in the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, the governor obviously could help in consolidating,\u201d Renner said. \u201cNonetheless, we see momentum and that people want the adult in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the campaign trail, Renner touts his record as House Speaker from 2022-2024, when he helped shepherd much of DeSantis\u2019 agenda into law. He listed off several major bills \u2014 legalizing the permitless carry of firearms; banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy; universal vouchers \u2014 passed under his watch.<\/p>\n
And Renner noted Donalds, a former state House member who won a U.S. House seat in 2020, was in Congress during that time.<\/p>\n
\u201cByron Donalds was up getting on cable news networks, self-promoting to become governor, and that\u2019s what he\u2019ll do as governor for the next higher office,\u201d Renner said. \u201cWe need somebody who\u2019s actually going to be here to govern.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Gubernatorial Candidate Paul Renner speaks during the Republican Party of Florida Sunshine State Showdown event, at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-358697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}