After President Joe Biden trolled Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis for vowing to "stand in the way" of lockdowns, mask mandates and vaccine passports — asking "governor who?" — DeSantis fired back Friday.
"I guess I'm not surprised that Biden doesn't remember me," DeSantis said at a news conference. "I guess the question is, what else has he forgotten?"
After smiling and receiving laughs, DeSantis got serious about the issues he says Biden has "forgotten."
"Biden has forgotten about the crisis at our southern border, I can tell you that," DeSantis continued. "Biden has forgotten about the inflation that's biting the budgets of families all throughout our country.
"Biden has forgotten about the demonstrators who are fighting for freedom down in Cuba. Biden's even forgotten about the Constitution itself — as we saw with what he did with this moratorium."
The moratorium to which he referred was the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's extending the ban on rental evictions, despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling it could be done constitutionally only through legislation in Congress.
DeSantis then proceeded to detail the "governor who" he is.
"I'm the governor who protects parents and their ability to make the right choices for their kids' education," he added. "I'm the governor who protects the jobs and education and businesses in Florida by not letting the federal government lock us down.
"I'm the governor who answers to the people in Florida, not to bureaucrats in Washington."
The back and forth started when Biden pointed out Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and DeSantis for rising COVID-19 infections in the two largest red states in the U.S., telling them to "get out of the way."
A day later, DeSantis took offense, telling Biden: "Do your job." He cited the COVID-19-infected migrants flooding the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas while the administration continued to block border policies that had slowed the tide of illegal immigration.
"If you're coming after the rights of parents in Florida, I'm standing in your way," DeSantis said earlier this week, leading to Biden's "governor who" dismissal of DeSantis. "If you're trying to deny kids a proper in-person education, I'm gonna stand in your way and stand up for the kids in Florida.
"If you 're trying to restrict people and impose mandates and ruin their jobs and livelihood, if you are trying to lock people down, I am standing in your way. I am standing for the people of Florida."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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