Jen Psaki blasts Gov. Ron DeSantis for fundraising off his spat with the White House over COVID-19 restrictions
- Jen Psaki blasted Gov. Ron DeSantis for fundraising off his spat with the White House.
- Biden and DeSantis have been feuding over DeSantis making it harder for schools to require masks.
- "I want public-health officials to make decisions about how to keep my kids safe," Psaki said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday called out Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida for fundraising off a spat with the White House over his signing of a bill to cut funding from local school districts that require students to wear masks.
"As the parent myself of two young children, I want public-health officials to make decisions about how to keep my kids safe - not politicians," Psaki said at her news briefing.
"And not only is Gov. DeSantis not abiding by public-health decisions, he's fundraising off of this," she added. "So my view, and our view as an administration, is that parents in Florida and parents across the country should have the ability and knowledge that their kids are going to school and they're in safe environments."
The beef started on Tuesday, when Biden called out DeSantis and Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas for signing into law bills that make it harder for localities, school districts, and businesses to require vaccination or mask-wearing.
Both states have rapidly rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, primarily driven by the highly contagious Delta variant.
"Some state officials are passing laws ... that forbid people from doing the right thing," Biden said on Tuesday about the pandemic. "I say to the governors, please help. If you're not going to help, get out of the way of the people that are trying to do the right thing. Use your power to save lives."
In response, DeSantis blamed the Biden administration for the rise in cases, saying he imported "more virus from around the world by having a wide-open southern border."
"Why don't you do your job? Why don't you get this border secure, and until you do that, I don't want to hear a blip about COVID from you, thank you" DeSantis said.
Biden was, in turn, asked about DeSantis' comments at a White House event about electric vehicles on Thursday. "Governor who?" he said. "That's my response."
DeSantis' rebuttal came in a Friday-morning fundraising email sent out through the Conservative Review's email list.
"Joe Biden wants me to get out of the way because I refuse to yield power to the federal government and strip Floridians of their liberties," he wrote. "Well, I've got news for Joe Biden: I'm standing in your way and I'm not going anywhere."
Then, in a fundraising email sent out shortly after 1:30 p.m., DeSantis' campaign said Biden was "taking away the freedoms of law-abiding Americans" and that the governor "will not kowtow to authoritarian bullying from Joe Biden or anyone else. He will ALWAYS stand up for the freedom of Floridians."