DeSantis fires back at Biden over mask mandate comments

Gov. Ron DeSantis is doubling down on his ban on mask mandates as he fires back at President Joe Biden.

“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,” DeSantis said during a Wednesday press conference.

This war of words is unfolding as Florida hospitals continue to break records with their number of COVID-19 patients. You can hear the frustration from both of these men.

“If you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way of people trying to do the right thing,” Biden said.

“Joe Biden is taken to himself to try to single out Florida over COVID,” DeSantis said.

Biden doesn’t believe DeSantis is doing enough to slow the spread.

“COVID-19 is a national challenge and we have to come together. All of us together as a country to solve it,” Biden said.

DeSantis, on the other hand, said the president is the problem. “What has he done? He’s imported more virus from around the world from having a wide-open southern border; you have hundreds of thousands of people pouring over every month.”

Currently, there are 11,500 patients in Florida hospitals with COVID-19.

Florida and Texas together account for about one-third of all new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Right now, Florida is averaging 58 COVID-19 deaths per day, Texas is averaging 34 and California is averaging 11.

Regardless of the numbers, DeSantis vowed that he will not let anyone, including the president of the United States, mandate masks or vaccines in the state of Florida.

“If you are trying to lock people down, I am standing in your way and I am standing for the people of Florida,” he said.