Fauci has previously trashed Florida's coronavirus response, instead, laughably claiming that New York did things "correctly" despite having the second-highest COVID death rate in the nation.

Now, DeSantis is hitting back in a new interview with The Daily Caller in which he likens Fauci's rise to faux "sainthood" and noted how Democrats elevated charlatans throughout the pandemic simply out of hatred for Donald Trump.

"If you're going to pick someone to be your liberal hero, they seem to be picking the wrong people," DeSantis said, discussing how the media treated his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic versus how the media treated Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

"I mean to pick Cuomo, the guy's had a lot of problems," DeSantis said with a laugh. "And then they elevated Fauci to basically sainthood, and yet we've seen Fauci's been wrong about so many different things, and clearly he wasn't honest with the American people about the origins of COVID."

"So if you're going to try to create a hero against your bad guy, if it's Trump or whoever else, at least get it right," the governor added. "It seems like the people they're picking end up having a lot of problems."