Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has constantly fought against vaccine and mask mandates, while also repeatedly insisting he’s not against vaccines and masks themselves. He just values choice, he says.
Except that’s clearly not true, based on his need to bully some teenagers out of wearing masks during a press conference and photo-op Wednesday.
DeSantis brought the high school students in to stand behind him as he talked about funding cyber security education programs. As he entered, he was visibly angry at the sight of them wearing masks.
“You do not have to wear those masks, I mean please take them off,” he said as he walked in. The students laughed but he continued, his voice becoming more irate: “Honestly, it’s not doing anything and we’ve gotta stop with this COVID theater.”
“So if you want to wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous,” he snipped, then let out a huge passive-aggressive sigh, shaking his head, and really making it clear he does not actually think it’s fine for them to wear masks.
Most of the students took their masks off but a few didn’t. And at least one parent was understandably upset seeing the governor “pressure” her child into foregoing a very basic safety measure.
DeSantis’ press secretary then decided that it was somehow appropriate to turn that mother’s anger into a meme, by the way:
DeSantis and other anti-mask, anti-vaccine advocates have repeatedly insisted that we need to listen to parents, that politicians can’t be allowed to impose their will onto students against their and their parent’s wishes.
So what exactly does he think he was doing?
“I would tell (the governor) to stop bullying kids.”
— Justin Schecker (@WFLAJustin) March 3, 2022
Kevin Brown says Gov. DeSantis had no right to tell his son and the other high school students to take off their masks.
His son decided to keep his mask on during the press conference at USF. https://t.co/JNYeA9dYci @WFLA pic.twitter.com/nnBTJNmfQF
The student in that clip speaks about his decision to leave his mask on, and about how he didn’t really know if he was allowed to, given the power dynamic at play. (This is the governor, after all, giving him instructions.)
“His mother tells him to wear the mask, I tell him it’s his choice,” his father says in the clip. “So he made that choice and the governor has no right to tell no kid—or no one—they can or can’t wear a mask. He doesn’t have that right.”
That’s basically word-for-word what DeSantis and other anti-mask mandate politicians have been saying since this whole thing began, right up until he let his hypocrisy run rampant at a photo op.
(image: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
