In a two-pronged attack on Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and President Joe Biden took shots at DeSantis while at the same time praising Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for his ability to manage state affairs despite earlier in the day when Cuomo announced that he was resigning following a crisis.
Reached by a reporter for an independent outlet, Psaki responded to the question of how DeSantis’s office intends to enforce the state’s mask mandate ban by suggesting that the state would levy monetary penalties on top school officials.
“If you’re not interested in following the public health guidelines to protect the lives of people in your state, to give parents some comfort as they’re sending their kids to school, schools are opening in Florida this week I know, in many parts of Florida, then get out of the way and let public officials let local officials do their job to keep students safe,” Psaki said. “This is serious, and we’re talking about people’s lives, and we know based on public health guidelines that even though kids under a certain age are not yet eligible, masks can have a huge impact.”
WH Press Sec. Jen Psaki hints at using federal funds in response to Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R-FL) financial penalties for school officials who defy ban on mask mandates:
"Certainly paying for salaries could be a part of that … we're looking at a range of options …" pic.twitter.com/4MWsQgU1M2
— The Recount (@therecount) August 10, 2021
President Biden later that day jumped on the bandwagon by saying that he thought that it was “a little disingenuous when I suggest that people in zones where there is a high risk, where the masks like you all are doing,” Biden told reporters. “[And] I’m told that government should get out of the way and not do that, they don’t have authority to do that. And I find it interesting that some of the very people saying that, who hold government positions, are people who are threatening that if a school teacher asks a student if they’ve been vaccinated, or if a principal says that everyone in my school should wear a mask, or the school board votes for it, that governor will nullify that. That governor has the authority to say you can’t do that. I find that totally counterintuitive, and quite frankly, disingenuous.”
“Do you have presidential powers to intervene in states like Texas and Florida where they are banning mask mandates?” a reporter asked.
“I don’t believe that I do thus far, we’re checking that, we, but there are on federal workforce I can,” Biden responded. “And I think that people should understand, seeing little kids, I mean, four, five, six years old, in hospitals on ventilators. And some of them passing, not many, but some of them passing, it’s almost I mean, it’s it’s just, well, I should not characterize beyond that.”
Biden made the remarks during a press conference where he praised Cuomo for doing “a hell of a job” as the governor of the state. Biden later snapped at a female reporter who asked him about how he could praise the governor “if he’s accused of sexually harassing women on the job?”
Biden accuses Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott of sickening children with possibly deadly cases of Covid because they won't implement mask mandates and other restrictions from last year, calling their behavior "counterintuitive and quite frankly disingenuous" pic.twitter.com/C4PGAfAkc5
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 10, 2021
