This week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) held a press conference alongside Florida’s national guard to discuss a number of topics, including the proposal of $100 million for the military budget.
As well, Governor DeSantis commented on President Joe Biden’s (D) recent comments regarding testing and the vaccine mandate. Amidst the ongoing pandemic, with Colorado, California, and New York all documenting one case each of the new omicron COVID variant, Governor DeSantis argued that the President is trying to move forward with “trying to impose more restrictions” that DeSantis finds to be unreasonable.
DeSantis has been a longtime critic of the President’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and both government officials have gone back and forth regarding their leadership. This has resulted in oppositional words regarding mask mandates, vaccine mandates and vaccine passports in both the country and the state of Florida.
During the press conference, DeSantis once again directed criticism at the president, questioning actions the Administration has taken regarding the pandemic and the border.
“If you go to the Bahamas as an American citizen, and you come back, you’ve gotta do a test – a COVID test – but if you just come right across the border illegally, then somehow that’s fine, and we don’t care about the test or vaccination,” Governor DeSantis argued.
“I just don’t understand it,” he lamented.
An August Quinnipiac poll indicated that Floridian voters do not approve of President Biden’s handling of the pandemic, and the President’s vaccine mandate, which Republicans have rallied against, was also halted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
However, the President remains optimistic that the United States will persevered through the winter months in facing the new omicron COVID variant.
Earlier this week, when speaking from the White House, President Biden championed vaccination across the country as an effective defense. At the time, a case of the omicron variant had not been detected in the country.
“We have the best vaccine in the world, the best medicines, the best scientists, and we’re learning more every single day,” said the President, adding that "we’ll fight this variant with scientific and knowledgeable actions and speed, not chaos and confusion."
