Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) slammed President Biden for telling GOP governors to “get out of the way” jab Wednesday, telling the president that he should focus more on doing his job in securing the U.S.-Mexico border before even saying a “blip” about his handling on COVID.
In a press conference Wednesday, DeSantis began his remarks addressing Biden’s criticism made just a day prior of him and other GOP governors, accusing them of being in the way in the fight of the new contagious COVID variant resurgence by banning public health restrictions.
“Why don’t you do your job?” DeSantis said Wednesday. “Why don’t you get this border secure? And until you do that, I don’t wanna hear a blip about COVID from you.”
The Florida governor noted how Biden’s “wide open-border” policy has imported “more virus from around the world.”
“This is a guy who ran for president saying he was gonna “shut down the virus’. And what has he done?” DeSantis said. “He’s imported more virus from around the world by having a wide-open southern border.”
“I can tell you, whatever variants are around the world, they’re coming across that southern border,” the governor added. “And so, he’s not shutting down the virus. He’s helping to facilitate it in our country.” DeSantis added.
DeSantis vowed to stand in the way of anyone who attempts to impose COVID “lockdown policies” on Floridians and slammed Biden for trying to restrict the rights of parents and children in the Sunshine State.
“Joe Biden suggests that if you don’t do lockdown policies, then you should ‘get out of the way.’ 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,” DeSantis warned the Biden administration.
“If you’re coming after the rights of parents in Florida, I’m standing in your way,” DeSantis added. “If you’re trying to deny kids a proper in-person education, I’m going to stand in your way and stand up for the kids in Florida. If you’re trying to restrict people and impose mandates and ruin their jobs and livelihood, if you are trying to lock people down, I am standing in your way. I am standing for the people of Florida.”
The Florida Governor and rising 2024 Republican presidential candidate also ripped Biden for attempting to replicate the failed state of New York impending unconstitutional vaccine mandate that DeSantis said imposes “restaurants should ban young kids from being able to go in because they’re not eligible for vaccination, and law-abiding citizens have to produce proof of their medical records just to go to the gym or attend an event, or just to participate in everyday society.”
“[Biden] wants that, but yet if you want to vote, he thinks it’s too much of a burden to show a picture ID when you’re voting. So no voter ID, but you have to show your medical papers just to be able to live an everyday life? Give me a break,” DeSantis said, noting that America faces a choice between being a “free society, or we can have a biomedical security state. And I can tell you, Florida, we’re a free state.”
Biden on Tuesday denounced DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for banning COVID restrictions, including reimposing mask mandates or vaccine passports, calling their freedom imposed measure “bad health policy,” saying that the Republican leaders should “get out of the way” of people who are trying to “do the right thing.”
“We need leadership from everyone, and if some governors aren’t willing to do the right thing to beat this pandemic, then they should allow businesses and universities who want to do the right thing to be able to do it,” Biden said at the White House on Tuesday afternoon.
“I say to these governors; please help. If you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way of people who are trying to do the right thing. Use your power to save lives,” Biden said.
Both DeSantis and Abbott have issued executive orders banning mask mandates despite the confusing Centers for Disease and Prevention’s unreliable guidance in imposing mask mandates for Americans – regardless of their vaccination status indoors.
DeSantis’ fiery remark to the president drew a pathetic response from White House press secretary Jen Psaki who accused the Florida Governor of not fighting the COVID battle as the Sunshine currently seeing a surge of the Delta variant.
“23% of new COVID hospitalizations in the U.S are in Florida, and their hospitals are being overwhelmed again. We are doing everything we can to help the people of FL, and they’re stepping up by getting vaccinated – we hope @GovRonDeSantis joins us in this fight,” Psaki tweeted.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) fired back at Psaki’s tweet in defense of DeSantis, reminding the incompetent press secretary of the flip-flop action the Biden administration pushed and didn’t create the COVID vaccine despite claiming otherwise.
“You want to help #Florida?” Rubio tweeted. “Stop sparking fights over mask mandates & pushing contradictory courses of action. Thankfully vaccinations are up. But that’s in spite, not because of the Biden administration.”
2024 PresidentialBiden Border CrisisBorder CrisisCoronavirusCOVID-19Delta VariantFloridaGov. Greg AbbottGov. Ron DeSantisMask MandatePresident BidenSen. Marco RubioVaccine PassportsWhite House
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