With Republicans upset with President Joe Biden and his administration for breaking their promise not to mandate vaccines, Democrats like Rep. Ted Deutch have not reverted to blaming Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for forcing President Joe Biden’s hand in implementing the recent vaccination mandate.
During an appearance on the “This Week in South Florida” Sunday morning political TV program, Rep. Deutch said that the issue of vaccinations cannot be left for everyday people to decide.
“It is just not right to suggest that this is an issue that can simply be left for people to decide that in the middle of a pandemic, the decisions that impact all of the people around them should be left completely up to them,” said Rep. Deutch.
Rep. Deutch then said that the reason why President Biden had to mandate vaccines for government employees was that Governor DeSantis forced his hand in doing so, adding that Biden “had to act” because Gov. DeSantis was not allowing private businesses, “business owners that he claims to want to protect,” to force their employees and patrons to wear masks.
“The governor is is (sic), in large part, responsible for forcing action because he's trying to prevent people from acting reasonably to save lives,” said Deutch.
Deutch has had a long-standing position of forced mask mandates and lockdowns and was one of the first elected officials to demand that DeSantis put in place lockdowns for the entire state of Florida.
Deutch asserts that “we cannot wait,” and “we cannot leave this decision to county and local governments.”
Arguing that Governor DeSantis’ leadership is needed during this time of crisis, the Florida Democrat called for the Governor “to immediately issue a statewide shelter-in-place order.”
