While Gov. DeSantis slammed the president for his vaccine mandate, he’s also applauding a Florida court that reinstated his mask ban in schools. NBC 6’s Kim Wynne reports
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis paid a visit to Ponte Vedra Beach on Friday to speak at a veterans appreciation event ahead of the 20th anniversary of September 11th.
During the visit DeSantis made remarks about President Joe Biden's new federal vaccine requirements in an all-out effort to curb the surging COVID-19 delta variant.
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The government's expansive new rules, announced Thursday, mandate that all employers with more than 100 workers require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly.
"When you have a president like Biden issuing unconstitutional edicts against the American people, we have a responsibility to stand up for the Constitution and to fight back, and we are doing that in the state of Florida," DeSantis said. "This is a president who has acknowledged in the past he does not have the authority to force this on anybody and this order would result potentially in millions of Americans losing their jobs. I think we should be protecting people's jobs, not trying to kick people out of work right now. And that's exactly what we're going to be doing in Florida."
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Biden has also signed an executive order requiring vaccination for all employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government.
No testing opt-out is expected to be included for the executive branch requirement.
Biden called some Republican governors “cavalier” on Friday for resisting his call for far-reaching new federal coronavirus vaccine requirements he hopes will curb the surging delta variant.
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DeSantis vowed to fight Biden on his new vaccine requirements affecting as many as 100 million Americans.
"Clearly, we have a president acting outside the bounds of the Constitution and the state of Florida, me as governor. I'm going to have the legislature involved as well," DeSantis said. "You know, we're going to fight back and offer protections."
