Gov. Ron DeSantis called President Joe Biden a “lockdowner” when he was asked about a domestic travel ban report on Fox News. He said lockdowns won’t help with the increase of COVID-19 cases, and cases of the new variant.
“There’s no basis in reality to do this except to punish a state that is doing it better than what his experts have recommended. "
DeSantis said he doesn’t agree with the reports that said the Biden administration will place a domestic travel ban on certain states including Florida. This despite a White House spokesperson saying as recently as Thursday that there are currently no bans of domestic travel being considered.
Daniel Henry, the head of the Duval County Democratic Party, backed that up telling News4Jax, “I don’t see that as something that the administration has stated, or acknowledged as something it wants to do”
Florida currently takes the lead with the highest number of cases of the U.K. variant In the U.S., which according to the CDC is 379.
States like Missouri and Ohio only have 1 case.
Florida is also at a 6.97 positivity rate for the virus as of Saturday, with cases jumping up more than 5,000 cases from Friday to Saturday.
DeSantis claims a lockdown wouldn’t help stop the spread of the virus and the U.K. variant.
“Biden is a lockdowner. His experts are lockdowners. Lockdowns don’t work. We’ve demonstrated that. We’re not turning back,” said DeSantis.
Sen. Marco Rubio also weighed in on this.
“After President Trump announced a travel ban on China he called it xenophobia, and in March of last year he said travel bans to anywhere in the world don’t work,” Rubio said Sunday.
Florida’s Department of Health did a report that more than 2 million vaccinations have been administered to 1.3 million people as of Sunday.
Rubio said the state should continue reopening, not shutting down.
“It would be devastating to Florida’s economy. It would be singling out the state in what appears to be punishment, it would be unsubstantiated by the science,” said Rubio.