On Monday evening, Vice President Kamala Harris, arriving in Florida, implied that the state of Florida needed her help, tweeting, “Hey Florida! Help is Here.”
Hey Florida! Help is Here. pic.twitter.com/XYt2NVUxs4
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) March 22, 2021
Earlier this month, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared on Fox News with Judge Jeanine Pirro. Pirro opined that the recently-passed $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill rewarded Democratic-run states that had damaged their economies with strict lockdowns while punishing states like Florida, which had acted to make sure their economies stayed afloat.
DeSantis replied, “Exactly. We are getting penalized by about $2 billion because we have low unemployment, because we saved the economy, because also we have lower COVID mortality than a lot of these lockdown states. So what this bill does is say, ‘If you locked down, if you destroyed your state; if you destroyed your economy, and you failed to stop COVID as well, you’re going to get a windfall.’ Some of these lockdown states are getting an extra billion, two billion, three billion dollars, so it’s effectively a transfer of money from states like Florida and Georgia to states like New York, Illinois, and California. It stinks to high heaven.”
In February, DeSantis reacted harshly to speculation that the Biden administration might institute travel restrictions on the state of Florida.
McClatchy had reported, “The Biden administration is considering whether to impose domestic travel restrictions, including on Florida, fearful that coronavirus mutations are threatening to reverse hard-fought progress on the pandemic.”
DeSantis fired: “I think it would be unconstitutional, it would be unwise, and it would be unjust,” adding that “restricting the right of Americans to travel freely throughout our country while allowing illegal aliens to pour across the southern border unmolested would be a ridiculous, but very damaging farce.”
He continued: “We will not back down, and if anyone tries to harm Floridians or target us, we will respond very swiftly.”
“People have asked me about, there was some type of report about potential travel restrictions on Americans and on Floridians, and I think it’s an absurd report that they would be doing that; I think it would be unconstitutional, it would be unwise, and it would be unjust,” DeSantis began. “If you think about it, restricting the right of Americans to travel freely throughout our country while allowing illegal aliens to pour across the southern border unmolested would be a ridiculous, but very damaging farce. So we will oppose it 100%; it would not be based in science; it would purely be a political attack against the people of Florida.”