Biden Vs DeSantis: The Battle Continues
President laughs when asked about criticisms from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: ‘Governor who?’
The rhetorical face-off between President Biden and Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic now appears to morphing into a full-blown feud between the two potential 2024 presidential rivals.
The fracas began Tuesday, when Biden called out the “disappointing” leadership in Florida and Texas in relation to the management of the COVID pandemic in those states, where GOP governors are taking a distinctly political and ideological response to surging cases of the deadly disease.
DeSantis, who is considered a potential Republican candidate for president in 2024, fired back at Biden over his support for vaccine mandates across the country, saying, “Give me a break. And so I think the question is is we can either have a free society or we can have a biomedical security state. And I can tell you, Florida, we're a free state.”
The stalwart supporter of Donald Trump also tried to score right-wing political points.
“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,” DeSantis said.
Biden apparently laughed off DeSantis’ broadsides at a public White House event Thursday about electric vehicles. When a reporter asked him about the DeSantis criticism, the president laughed and asked, : “Governor who?”
Responding to another reporter's question in her daily briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the administration is approaching the pandemic “not as a political issue, but a public health issue.”
“We remain in touch with officials in Florida, just like we’re in touch with officials from around the country, about how we can provide assistance from the federal level to help address this public health crisis,” Psaki said. “What I have cited and what the president has cited is publicly available data about public health and the impact in Florida. It is factual, and it is a fact and data that you all are aware of that 25 percent of hospitalizations in the country are in Florida.
“It is also a fact that the governor has taken steps that are counter to public health recommendations. So, we’re here to state the facts,” she added. “Frankly, our view is that this is too serious, deadly serious to be doing partisan name-calling. That’s what we’re not doing here. We’re focused on providing public health data, information to the people of Florida to make sure they understand what steps they should be taking, even if those are not steps taken at the top of the leadership in that state.”
“Don’t be the reason why schools are interrupted”
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona joined Psaki at Thursday where he asked Republican governors like DeSantis who are taking a more hands-off approach to such matters as mask mandates, to change course so that schools can open safely in the fall.
“You know, don’t be the reason why schools are interrupted. Our kids have suffered enough. Let’s do what we know works. Let’s do what we know works across the country. Politics doesn't have a role in this. Educators know what to do. We did it last year,” Cardona said. “So, I have calls out to those states, but at the end of the day I want to work with Texas. I want to work with Florida. I want to make sure those students have access to in-person learning. So, at the end of day we're all in this together and it’s critically point that we have conversations with governors directly, with state chiefs directly.
“We want to be an ally and make sure that we’re supporting our students. At the end of the day, we're talking about students being in classrooms. They’ve suffered enough. It’s time for them to be in the classroom without disruption to their learning,” he added.
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