Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) criticized Democrat lawmakers Thursday, asserting they are in favor of people “losing their jobs” over vaccine mandates after they refused to support legislation providing protections for U.S. workers.
Speaking on the state’s “Freedom First Budget” in Tallahassee, Florida, DeSantis spoke about the recent special session in Florida and the legislation passed, providing protections for workers who face losing their jobs over vaccine mandates.
“Just think if we had not done that, the destruction that would have happened, the unemployment we would see. We’ve saved the livelihoods of so many people who are hardworking, who don’t have the luxury of working from home, and we stood up for them time and time again,” he said.
“And think about what recently just happened, when we did the bill to prevent people from losing their jobs over vax mandates. I think every Democrat in the Senate voted against that. They were all in favor of people losing their jobs — cops, firefighters, people that work for private businesses, nurses,” he said.
“You’re seeing what’s happening in these other states,” he continued, noting the media does not cover Delta waves when it is in the north — only the South or Florida.
“You’re really seeing huge hospitalization numbers, and a lot of these hospitals are short staffed, because they’ve actually laid off nurses. So we stood up for those folks, and we’ve been able to save and protect more jobs than anybody’s ever been able to do because of the circumstances we found ourselves in,” he said.
His remarks come one day after Senate Democrats overwhelmingly voted against blocking Biden’s vaccine mandate on private employers. It passed in the Senate 52-48, with Democrat Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Jon Tester (D-MT) joining Republicans.
DeSantis added that Democrats are supporting “inflationary policies” which are “driving up the cost of gas, they’re driving up the cost of groceries, [and] they’re pinching people’s family budget.”