Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) called out White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki for attacking the governor's handling of the coronavirus pandemic following reports that the state suffered record-breaking COVID case numbers.
During a Monday press briefing, Psaki said the Biden administration is willing to assist "Florida or any other part of the country" in regard to the pandemic before alleging that the Sunshine State was following politics instead of public health guidelines.
Psaki swipes at FL Governor Ron DeSantis for "not allowing schools to mandate masks and allowing kids to wear masks."
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 2, 2021
"At a certain point, leaders are going to have to choose whether they're going to follow public health guidelines or whether they're going to follow politics." pic.twitter.com/UOz48yLLru
"There are steps and precautions that can be taken, including encouraging people to get vaccinated, encouraging people to wear masks, including allowing schools to mandate masks and allowing kids to wear masks, which is not the current state of play in Florida," Psaki said in reference to DeSantis signing an executive order Friday prohibiting mask mandates in Florida schools.
Psaki's comments about Florida's new policy were off-base as DeSantis made mask-wearing optional for students attending school in the state but did not ban children from from wearing a face covering.
DeSantis' office responded to Psaki's attacks, saying that she "is the one playing politics with the pandemic" by ignoring the governor’ efforts to protect the vulnerable.
"The White House should be more concerned about the flip-flopping of the CDC, which is inadvertently promoting vaccine hesitancy with their confusing, contradictory public communications," DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw told Fox News. "Stating that vaccinated people should wear masks and socially distance is implying that the vaccines do not change anything, which is the wrong message for our federal government to be promoting."