Axios co-founder and editor Jim VandeHei says that Fox News and political commentator Rush Limbaugh are to blame for what he considers to be the substandard red states' response to COVID-19.

What are the details?

VandeHei appeared on Thursday's broadcast of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show, where he blasted Republican governors for their response to the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.

On Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R) ordered a statewide shutdown after facing criticism from some quarters that he waited too long to do so.

At the time of this writing, at least 7,773 cases of COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Florida, and at least 101 have died because of the virus.

Addressing DeSantis' reluctance to issue a statewide stay-at-home order sooner — as well as other lawmakers' similar actions — VandeHei said, "What you're seeing here, and this is a bigger problem for society, is information inequality. Like, why DeSantis do what he did? Why did Georgia wait so long?"

VandeHei said that it was because they were getting their information from President Donald Trump, Fox News, and Rush Limbaugh.

"It's because they were listening to President Trump up until the last five or six days. They were watching Fox News and listening to Rush Limbaugh," he complained. "They were following conservatives on Twitter or social media, all of whom were downplaying this. The information was there, but in that information bubble, they were basically getting a lot of sort of noise and news pollution.

"It has huge consequences," he said, "because all of these [preventative] steps could have been done months ago, certainly could have been done weeks ago.

"There's still a lot of garbage out there," VandeHei added. "[Some conservatives] are still spreading nonsense."

You can watch video of VandeHei's exchange with "Morning Joe" co-hosts Joe Scarbrough and Mika Brzezinski here.

(H/T: Mediaite)

