Palm Beach state attorney slams Ron DeSantis for playing politics while COVID-19 ravages his state

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been urging residents of his state to get vaccinated for COVID-19, inspiring some far-right anti-vaxxers to denounce him as a traitor to the MAGA cause. Yet DeSantis opposes mask mandates and panders to MAGA extremists by attacking expert immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci every chance he gets. And when Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday, August 2, he slammed DeSantis for playing political games while the COVID-19 Delta variant goes from bad to worse in the Sunshine State.

One in five new COVID-19 infections in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is in Florida. But on July 30, DeSantis signed an executive order blocking public schools in Florida from issuing mask mandates. At least two Florida counties were planning to require face masks in public schools, but DeSantis' order — as "Morning Joe" host Mika Brzezinski pointed out — "overrules those requirements."

Morning Joe 6AM 8/2/2021 | MSNBC Breaking News Today August 2, 2021www.youtube.com

The 50-year-old Aronberg, who often appears on "Morning Joe" and other MSNBC programs as a Democratic pundit, told Brzezinski, "You have to understand that Gov. DeSantis' primary motivation is to become the Republican nominee for president in 2024, and that's why he engages in this performance art instead of good public policy. That's why, while Florida became #1 in the country for coronavirus last week, the governor had no public events focused on COVID — instead, had actually two events where he decried mask mandates in schools. And he traveled to Utah last week to speak to a conservative political conference to bash the CDC and Dr. Fauci and pledging that he will never support restrictions stemming from coronavirus."

The Palm Beach County state attorney continued, "This is all about GOP primary politics. That's how you understand this, Mika. It's not about public policy. And he announced these executive orders where he said he would defund the schools if they tried to impose a mask mandate. He announced these orders in front of a podium with a sign that said, 'Free to choose.' Ironically, it was about the same time, separately, that he was petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. So, I guess his belief in the freedom of choice only extends to COVID and not to women's reproductive rights."