Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis previewed a likely line of attack against both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on Friday, deriding the federal response to Covid-19 here in the first-in-the-nation presidential caucus state.

“We were right, they were wrong,” DeSantis boasted during what amounted to a stump speech before roughly 700 people in a spacious ballroom at the Rhythm City Casino Resort. In particular, he took aim at Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who worked under both presidents as a top adviser on Covid and retired at the end of 2022.

“We refused to let our state descend into some sort of Faucian dystopia,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis’ remarks, his first as a likely presidential candidate in Iowa, also included a familiar barrage of attacks on progressives on immigration, education and gender identity, reiterating his view that his state is “where woke goes to die.”