Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defiantly hit back against President Biden Wednesday after the president implored governors 'get out of the way' of Covid restrictions amid rising cases.
DeSantis complained that Biden was trying to 'single out Florida,' after the state broke its own record for Covid-19 hospitalizations – and shifted focus to the president's handling of a surge in apprehensions at the southern border.
'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,' the fired-up Florida Republican said in remarks to reporters on Wednesday.
Florida set an all-time high with 11,515 hospitalized for Covid-19 in one day on Tuesday. The previous day also saw a record 10,389 hospitalizations, outpacing os previous peak, July 23, 2020, when there were 10,170 hospitalizations.
'Joe Biden has taken to himself to try to single out Florida over Covid. This is a guy who ran saying he was going to shut down the virus. What he's done is imported the virus from around the world with a wide open southern border,' he added.
DeSantis, left, asked Biden, right, 'why don't you do your job at the border'
Florida is averaging 27,681 cases per day, a 342% increase from the 6,492 average cases reported two weeks ago (left). COVID-19 hospitalizations also reached a record high with 11,515, breaking the previous record of 10, 207 set on Monday (right)
The number of people who said the US is moving in a favorable direction with the pandemic has also fallen as cases surged over July
'We can either have a free society or we can have a biomedical security state. and I can tell you, Florida, we're a free state. People are going to be free to choose.'
'23% of new COVID hospitalizations in the U.S are in Florida, and their hospitals are being overwhelmed again. We are doing everything we can to help the people of FL, and they're stepping up by getting vaccinated – we hope @GovRonDeSantis joins us in this fight,' White House press secretary Jen Psaki wrote on Twitter, quoting a clip of DeSantis' remarks.
'Just two states, Florida and Texas, account for one third of all new COVID-19 cases in the entire country. Just two states,' the president had said on Tuesday.
Biden had called out Florida and Texas for barring schools and local governments from imposing mask mandates. 'They should free people to do the
