Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that kids are not required to wear masks in his state and called protocols “political theater” on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
DeSantis caused an uproar after he told students they had the option to remove their masks at the University of South Florida Wednesday. He then told Fox News host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson that none of the adults in the room wore masks and wanted to ensure the students that “there is no reason” to be masked.
“None of the adults were wearing masks and it seemed to me that someone told those kids they had to do it,” DeSantis began. “So I just wanted to make it very clear they do not need to be doing it, obviously in Florida it’s is a free state. You can do it. But I think it’s also important to point out that there’s no reason to do it for young and healthy kids, especially.”
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The governor said the Florida Department of Health’s guidelines recommend individuals not to wear cloth masks. He further claimed that people “have been lied to” about masks’ ability in protecting against COVID-19.
He then countered claims that he “bullied” the students to take off their masks arguing that the true “bullying” is the COVID protocols enforced on individuals by the education system and workforce. (RELATED: Ron DeSantis Gets Irritated At ‘COVID Theater’ During Press Conference, Tells Students Behind Him They Can Take Their Masks Off)
“Bullying is locking kids out of school which they did. Bullying is forcing kids to wear masks for eight hours a day, which they did for two years and are only stopping now because the polling’s changed,” said DeSantis. “Bullying is kicking people out of work because of vaccine mandates. We fought all of those policies in Florida. We lifted people up and we liberated them from local school boards and governments that imposed them.”
DeSantis called masking “political theater” serving the purpose of appearance rather than for ensuring the health and safety of the people.
“It is political theater, they’re doing it for the appearance. They’re not doing it because it’s having any meaningful or medical impact,” he said. “If I have people that I think are being bullied into doing masks, I’m gonna let them know ‘you have the right to take it off.’ And I’m also going to tell them the truth, which not a lot of adults have told them, that it’s not effective to wear them in the first place.”
The governor said he “rejects the two-tiered society” of one party, such as waiters and students, having to wear masks and the other being free to choose. He then blasted “lockdown politicians” for imposing strict COVID policies, then escaping them by traveling to Florida.