Biden Threatens Legal Action Against Governors Who Ban School Mask Mandates

At a Wednesday news conference, President Joe Biden threatened legal action against governors who ban local mask mandates for schools.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, though unnamed, is one obvious target of Biden’s legal threat. 

The threat comes as Biden directed the Department of Education (DoE) to create more COVID rules for the upcoming school year. 

The “possible enforcement actions” against governors who ban mask mandates in schools are a part of Biden’s directive to DoE. 

He stated, “We’re not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators protecting our children.”

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DeSantis Responds To Biden’s Legal Threat

On Hannity, DeSantis fired back at Biden’s legal threat – pointing to the major crises in Afghanistan and on the southern border. 

“You have all the stuff going on with Afghanistan – obviously all the stuff at the southern border … one of the biggest border disasters in the history of our country, inflation, gas prices, and what does he do?” DeSantis said.

“He is obsessed with having the government force kindergartners to wear masks all day in school. In Florida, we believe that that’s the parents’ decision. Joe Biden thinks the federal government should come in and overrule the parents and force these young kids to wear these masks.”

Ongoing Back And Forth Between Biden And DeSantis

This is the latest volley in what has become an ongoing war of words between Biden and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Biden began the testy exchanges when earlier this month, he suggested that DeSantis and other governors who opposed restrictive COVID rules should “get out of the way.”

DeSantis wasn’t having it, telling Biden that he would stand up for people’s rights and that Biden should do his job on the border:

“If you’re trying to restrict people, impose mandates, if you’re trying to ruin their jobs and their livelihoods and their small business, if you are trying to lock people down, I am standing in your way and I’m standing for the people of Florida. So 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.”

Biden would later quip, “Governor who?” to a reporter question about DeSantis.

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Latest Florida Numbers And School Districts Defying Mandate Ban

The latest numbers coming out of Florida published on August 13, show that for the week published, the new case positivity rate was 19.3% with 286 deaths reported. The number of people fully vaccinated was 122,932.

The only age groups under 50% vaccinated were those ages 12-19 at 44%, and those ages 20-29 at 45%.

On Wednesday, Florida’s three largest school districts, Miami-Dade, Broward, and Hillsborough, along with Palm Beach County and Alachua County school boards were requiring all students to wear masks unless they have a doctor’s note.

DeSantis assured the districts involved there would be “consequences” for their actions.

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