Miami-Dade Democrats Threaten to Recall Miami Beach Commissioner

As the coronavirus pandemic hit Florida last March, Miami Beach Commissioner Ricky Arriola raised a radical topic of discussion with his fellow commissioners: What if the city deliberately infected its first responders with the virus so they could develop antibodies?

The suggestion — which Arriola told New Times was purely speculative — was widely panned on social media, most notably by many firefighters and police officers.

It also marked the beginning of a series of controversial statements by Arriola about COVID-19. In the past year, the city commissioner has called news coverage of the pandemic "panic porn," likened mask-wearing to virtue-signaling, and tweeted an article from the far-right conspiracy website Gateway Pundit calling to "jail Fauci," in reference to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the lead members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

In August, after the "jail Fauci" tweet caused a public outcry, Miami-Dade Democratic Party chair Steve Simeonidis threatened to initiate a recall effort to unseat Arriola.

Read more: https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-dade-democratic-party-threatens-to-recall-ricky-arriola-11804353