On Monday, Florida state agriculture commissioner and 2022 Democrat gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried said in an on-air interview that she does not support a statewide mask mandate in Florida.
On CNN’s “New Day” segment, Fried joined host John Berman to discuss Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R) recent approaches to COVID-19 pandemic. From the get-go, Fried fired shots at DeSantis’ policies surrounding the pandemic, attacking his statewide “anti-mask” mandates, his lack of promoting coronavirus vaccines (describing him as “anti-vaxx”), and his continuous spreading of coronavirus “misinformation.”
Berman rebutted Fried’s claim that DeSantis is “anti-vaxx,” noting that the Florida governor did receive the COVID-19 vaccine and has encouraged others to do the same. As a follow-up, the host asked Fried about her feelings of children wearing masks in schools.
“Look, we know that right now, we’re seeing increases in cases all across the country with our children under the age of 12. And we’re seeing it here in the state of Florida. We know that hospitalizations are up across our state, that we’re seeing more and more cases of children testing positive, which we hadn’t seen in the first round of the covid outbreak last year,” Fried said in the interview. “And so, it is up to us to let our local school boards – ones that are elected from their local communities – making these decisions with the parents.”
Fried continued, saying “my concern is this: we start school in a couple of weeks. We already know that schools are a hotbed for bacteria and for other types of illnesses, and so it’s going to spread like wildfire into our school systems. And it’s one thing I’m going to choose to put my children in a mask, and if another family chooses not to, the problem is those families are going to be exposing other children to it.”
Fried’s stance likely comes as a response to DeSantis’ announcement to allow children across the state to attend school in-person, maskless, in the fall. As Jacksonville, Florida news outlet News4Jax reported, DeSantis told a crowd in Cape Coral on Friday “[t]here will be no school closures. There will be no restrictions and no mandates in the state of Florida.” DeSantis sealed the deal by signing an executive order ensuring parents have the freedom to choose if their kids wear masks in school and can strip state funding from schools who mandate masks.
Berman pressed Fried on the topic at hand again, asking point blank if she would favor a statewide mask mandate for schools in Florida.
“Every county needs to make their own decisions,” Fried said. ”No statewide mask mandate, but I’d certainly would want every school board to have the power to make those right decisions for their own communities.”
This comes as a stark contrast to Fried’s previous stance on mask mandates. As Fox 35 Orlando reported, last year several local governments across Florida approved mask requirements while DeSantis did not issue any statewide directive. Fried opposed this, calling a statewide mask mandate “common sense” in a statement. Now, her stance has clearly upended.
Watch Fried's interview with CNN here:
Nikki Fried, the Democratic gubernatorial challenger to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, says she does not favor a statewide mask mandate.
— New Day (@NewDay) August 2, 2021
"I certainly would want every school board to have the power" to make the right decisions for their community, she addedhttps://t.co/dCYhvvtdyA pic.twitter.com/0QAWWYkDmm