The White House denied on Wednesday it was waging political war on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible 2024 Republican presidential contender leading a battleground state, despite its increasing public criticisms.
“Our war is not on DeSantis; it’s on the virus, which we are trying to kneecap,” press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at Wednesday’s White House briefing. “He does not seem to want to participate in that effort to kneecap the virus. Hence our concern.”
A reporter had asked whether the White House was attempting to “kneecap” a successful Republican governor.
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DeSantis and President Joe Biden have clashed over COVID-19 mandates, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s updated masking guidelines. On Tuesday, Biden said he found it “disingenuous” to claim to oppose government overreach on the coronavirus while banning localities and private entities from setting their own policies on masks and vaccination.
Biden has at various points pretended not to know DeSantis’s name or mocked the idea of calling him. DeSantis has, in turn, said he did not want to hear a “blip” from Biden about the virus until he got the surge of migrants at the border, some of whom have tested positive, under control.
Psaki has amplified these criticisms from the podium in the White House briefing room, saying DeSantis and other Republican governors who do not wish to follow CDC guidelines should “get out of the way.” She has also dinged the Florida governor for fundraising off his resistance to the administration on this issue.
On Wednesday, Psaki noted reports that the federal government had sent hundreds of ventilators to Florida despite DeSantis saying he was unaware of the request.
“As a policy, we don’t send ventilators to states without their interest in receiving the ventilators. I think the most important question here is why would you oppose receiving the ventilators when clearly you need those in your state given the percentage of hospitalizations that are occurring?” Psaki said.
DeSantis’s spokeswoman Christina Pushaw said on Twitter that the request was made by Healthy Florida through a routine process. “Why is the Biden Admin trying to make this into a huge political issue?” Pushaw asked.
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Cases and hospitalizations in Florida have been on the rise since the emergence of the delta variant. Biden has seen his approval ratings take a hit as vaccine skepticism has persisted and has since become more outspoken about his disagreements with how certain red states are managing the pandemic.
Prior to the current wave, Florida and Texas have compared favorably to states such as New York, where Biden said outgoing Gov. Andrew Cuomo did a “hell of a job.” But the Sunshine State has endured a serious outbreak in recent weeks, even as DeSantis has held the line on masks.
