Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded Wednesday to President Joe Biden’s criticism of how he and other Republican governors have handled the coronavirus pandemic.
“Joe Biden suggests that if you don’t do lockdown policies, then you should ‘get out of the way,’” DeSantis said during a news conference. “But let me tell you this: If you’re coming after the rights of parents in Florida, I’m standing in your way. I’m not going to let you get away with it.”
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“If you’re trying to deny kids a proper in-person education, I’m going to stand in your way, and I’m going to stand up for the kids in Florida. If you’re trying to restrict people, impose mandates, if you’re trying to ruin their jobs and their livelihoods and their small business, if you are trying to lock people down, I am standing in your way, and I’m standing for the people of Florida,” DeSantis made known.
DeSantis then admonished President Biden to adjust his focus.
“Why don’t you do your job, why don’t you get this border secure, and until you do that, I don’t want to hear a blip about COVID from you,” the Republican governor said.
The Biden administration is reportedly mobilizing resources to begin vaccinating migrants being held in the U.S. at the Mexico border, hoping to slow community transmission of COVID-19 into Texas.
Abbott’s remarks followed the White House’s criticism Tuesday of his and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s leadership during the pandemic. Texas and Florida have banned mask-wearing mandates and denounced widespread lockdowns.
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“Some state officials are passing law or signing orders that forbid people from doing the right thing,” President Joe Biden said Tuesday. “The most extreme of those measures is like the one in Texas that says state universities or community colleges could be fined if it allows a teacher to ask her unvaccinated students to wear a mask.”
Biden sharpened his attack, citing a surge in COVID case numbers amid the Delta variant’s rapid dominance and calling on Republican governors to help.
“Just two states - Florida and Texas - account for one-third of all new COVID 19 cases in the entire country,” Biden said, urging them to use their power to help or “at least get out of the way of people trying to do the right thing.”
In a tweet Wednesday evening, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Florida alone accounts for nearly a quarter of COVID hospitalizations in the U.S.
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