DeSantis isn't trustworthy.
Joe addressed those governors being obstructionists wrt masks.
Biden criticizes GOP governors banning mask mandates, will use Education Department to prevent prohibitions in schools
By Eugene Scott 5:30 p.m.
President Biden on Wednesday criticized Republican governors who are working to prohibit mask mandates and other initiatives to decrease the spread of the coronavirus in schools amid a surge in the number of infections nationwide.
The president outlined several steps to respond to the pandemic, including using the Education Department to ensure that local and school leaders can institute mask mandates and other steps.
“We’re not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators protecting our children,” the president said at the White House. “For example, the governors want to cut the pay of hard-working education leaders who require masks in the classroom. The money from the American Rescue Plan can be used to pay that person’s salary.”
“This administration is always going to take the side of our children,” Biden added.
More than 900,000 new coronavirus cases were reported last week nationwide — the most in a single week since January, when very few Americans were vaccinated.
While Biden did not name any governor in particular, at least two Republicans have frequently made the news for their opposition to mask mandates in states that are leading the country in new infections: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who announced Tuesday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
As cities, school districts and other government jurisdictions look to require masks to prevent people from being infected with the virus, some GOP state leaders, including Abbott and DeSantis, are fighting these efforts by local elected officials.
The Florida governor issued an executive order last month giving parents — not school districts — the power to ultimately decide whether their children should wear a mask in the classroom. In a statement, DeSantis wrote that guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending universal masking inside K-12 schools “lacks a well-grounded scientific justification.”
And Abbott, who is self-quarantining after testing positive for the coronavirus, is facing a lawsuit over an executive order banning local Texas governments from implementing mask mandates.
Disability Rights Texas, an advocacy agency for Texans with disabilities, says Abbott’s stance on the issue is endangering the lives of Texans who are especially vulnerable to contracting the coronavirus.
Tom Melsheimer, attorney from Winston & Strawn, which helped file the lawsuit, said the order forces parents to “face an untenable choice: educate their children at school and expose them to potential severe illness, long COVID, and even death or keep their children home, where they will receive a fraction of their education in one of the least integrated settings available with limited to no exposure to non-disabled peers.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/18/covid-delta-variant-live-updates/#link-JRSWKEUCDJHCFANB4PGTABD75M
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