Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis mocked politicians Wednesday for enforcing mask mandates in order to “cover their own a**es” at the 2021 Marketing Operation Summit.
“Politicians want to force you to cover your face as a way for them to cover their own a**es, that’s just the truth,” DeSantis said. “They want to be able to say they’re taking this on and they’re doing this even though it’s not proven to be effective. They want to still do it.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) new anti-mask line: “Politicians wanna force you to cover your face as a way for them to cover their own asses.” pic.twitter.com/Hv83NBkbgt
— The Recount (@therecount) August 18, 2021
The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its guidelines on July 27 recommending that all individuals, regardless of vaccination status, wear a mask indoors in order to protect against the Delta variant. The recommendation prompted K-12 schools and politicians across the U.S. to re-enforce mask mandates.
The Florida governor has been a strong opponent of mask mandates, particularly in his state’s school districts, where he made the July 30 announcement regarding his new executive order to ban mask mandates in schools and to grant parents the right to choose as to whether their children wear a mask in the classroom. (RELATED: ‘Most Significant Threat To Freedom In My Lifetime’: DeSantis Says COVID Unleashed ‘Medical Authoritarianism’)
DeSantis threatened that the state’s Board of Education can withhold the salaries of superintendents and school board members for enforcing mask mandates in an August 9 statement. Additionally, the Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked mask mandates Sunday issued in Dallas and Bexar counties, though Judge Clay Jenkins said the ruling “did not strike down my face mask order.”