WATCH: Florida Governor DeSantis slams corporate media ‘smear merchants’

DeSantis laughed, and said "It shows you how dishonest—these are smear merchants. That's why nobody trusts corporate media. They are a disaster in what they're doing. They knew what they were doing was a lie. I knew what they were doing was a lie. Everybody here knows what they were doing was a lie. They know that we know they're lying and yet they continue to lie."

"And they lied and they lied and they lied. We offered them the information and they declined to interview the key people because they didn't want to let go of the narrative. Guess what, there's going to be consequences for that. I know corporate media thinks that they can just run over people, but you can't run over this governor, I'm punching back. And I'm going to continue to do it until these smear merchants are held accountable."

DeSantis went on to discuss the proliferation of vaccines in Florida, saying that they've vaccinated 3.5 million people senior citizens in the Sunshine State. Seniors were prioritized in Florida, and the result, DeSantis said, was that seniors are less likely to be hospitalized with the virus, and less likely to die from it.

The Publix chain, he said, is one of the most popular brands in the state, and that what 60 Minutes said, alleging that Publix had "paid-t0-play" as regards vaccine distribution, "is a total crock."

DeSantis spoke out against the interview on Tucker Carlson, as well. On Sunday night, 60 Minutes invented a scandal in an attempt to push a false narrative regarding DeSantis and his selection of the popular grocery chain, Publix, for the state’s coronavirus vaccine distribution, while highlighting past donations from Publix to DeSantis's PAC—donations that are already public knowledge.

60 Minutes aired a selectively edited clip of a CBS reporter confronting Governor DeSantis about the donations from Publix to his PAC, trying to insinuate there was a shady deal at play between the Governor’s choice of Publix for COVID-19 vaccine distribution, although Publix is not the only option made available for Floridian's to receive the vaccine.

"We've vaccinated now three and a half million senior citizens. We were the first state to say, we're doing seniors first. We're not going to follow the CDC recommendation. And what we have done has worked," said DeSantis on Tucker Carlson Monday night. "And they (60 Minutes) didn't want to discuss that."