DeSantis, Scott trade barbs over Florida’s unemployment fiasco

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former governor turned U.S. Sen. Rick Scott are trading barbs over the state’s unemployment system, which collapsed in March and continues to lag in processing new unemployment claims.

DeSantis asked Florida Chief Inspector General Melinda Miguel in May to investigate why Florida, with Scott as governor, spent $77 million for an unemployment website that was “designed to fail” and collapsed “right off the bat” in mid-March when the state’s unemployment rate nearly tripled to 12.9 percent, leaving hundreds of thousands of newly jobless Floridians waiting weeks for their first checks.