News/Commentary

Unapologetic DeSantis responds to anger over asking kids to unmask: ‘People have been lied to for two years’

March 4, 2022 | | Print Article

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has revealed the reason why he’d encouraged University Of South Florida students to remove their masks prior to the beginning of his press conference Wednesday at the school: Because none of the adults in the room had been wearing a mask either.

The hypocrisy, he explained during an appearance Thursday on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” was too much.

“None of the adults were wearing masks, and it seemed to me that someone told those kids they had to do it. So I just wanted to make it very clear they do not need to be doing it,” he explained.

That this is even an issue is entirely because of the establishment press, which took a viral clip of him encouraging the kids to remove their masks and used it to smear him as some sort of bully:

He continued his remarks on Fox News by noting that, unlike the citizens in Democrat states, the citizens in Florida have never been bullied — genuinely bullied — into wearing masks.

“Obviously in Florida, it’s 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 in the state of Florida,” he said.

“We never had a mask mandate, of course, but our guidance from our health department is not to wear these cloth masks. And I think it needs to be said, because people have been lied to for two years.”

Addressing the elephant in the room — the bullying allegation — he then noted the absurdity of this allegation being made by the same people who’ve been calling for children to be double-masked and who only a year ago had called for children to remain locked up at home.

“I didn’t want [them] to be thinking that they were told to do this by me, because I certainly wouldn’t do that. And you know, they talk about letting someone have a choice to take off their mask and welcoming that choice, that that’s somehow bullying,” he said in exasperation.

“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 pollings changed,” he continued.

“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.”

Host Tucker Carlson concurred.

“It’s a little weird to hear criticism from people who are unmasked, sitting in crowded studios saying that you’re immoral for telling kids who are at a lower risk than the adults who are unmasked in the studios not to wear masks. Like what, people can’t see themselves, I guess?” he said.

His point was that the talking heads who’ve been bashing DeSantis — including MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough — appear to have no self-awareness.

DeSantis agreed with this point.

“And it creates a two-tier society. You have adults that are not masked and then the students are all masked, or you’ll have a crowded restaurant where everyone’s having a good time and they make the servers wear masks,” he said.

“I reject the two-tier society. I say every time we go, if we’re at a big event and the servers are wearing it, they should be liberated from those masks. It is political theater. They’re doing it for the appearance. They’re not doing it because it’s having any meaningful medical impact.”

But Democrats never do the same.

“No, but everyone loves a caste system, especially when they’re at the top of it. I mean, that’s really what they’re demanding,” Carlson responded.

True:

Concluding his remarks, DeSantis vowed to continue protecting his constituents from the hypocritical bullies of the left.

“We’ve seen time and time again all these left-wing lockdown politicians, they’ll impose mandates on others, then they’ll be out cavorting — and, by the way, they escape to Florida and live under our freedom time and time again, and we’ve documented that as well,” he said.

“So it is a hierarchy, and that’s what they’re trying to impose. And we reject that in Florida. And yes, if I have people that I think are being bullied into doing masks, I’m going to 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.”

Vivek Saxena
Latest posts by Vivek Saxena (see all)

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