Thread by @DrEricDing

📍BATTLE HEATING UP—After Florida threatened to withhold funds from schools that try to mandate masks to slow #COVID19—President Biden’s Education @SecCardona rebukes @GovRonDeSantis, saying FL cannot withhold school funding, & offers to **send schools direct federal money**—Wow!

2) why is he so crazy? “DeSantis has raked in campaign cash by attacking Biden and his administration’s coronavirus response, going so far as to single out Anthony Fauci, by selling “Don’t Fauci My Florida” campaign merchandise as Covid cases began rising.
politico.com/news/2021/08/1…

3) DeSantis campaign adviser and executive director of the Republican Party of Florida says... “Gov. DeSantis doesn’t care what those in the D.C. bubble think or say, he only cares about Florida’s safety and success all the while protecting individual liberties.”

4) “DeSantis is Trump’s Mini Me,” a Dem adviser said. “And he’s going to suffer the same fate as Trump. Unfortunately, a lot of people will get sick and die.”

5) Hostilities have markedly escalated after DeSantis on July 30 threatened to withhold school money and administrators’ salaries if students are required to mask up without the ability for a parental opt-out. Biden then told DeSantis, & Texas @GovAbbott, to get out of the way.

6) DeSantis doesn’t “want to hear a blip” out of Biden about Florida. Biden has called DeSantis and Abbott “disingenuous” and suggested DeSantis was so insignificant that he didn’t recognize the Floridian’s name. DeSantis then suggested Biden was a doddering & forgetful old man.

7) In short, DeSantis wants to frame the issue around parental rights, saying people have little to fear because Covid infections in schools has been relatively rare and serious illness rarer still.

8) DeSantis as reckless, emphasizes the threat to children and the possibility of school closures as the highly transmissible Delta variant leads to a spike in pediatric Covid cases.

9) Florida meanwhile is distorting deaths in their reporting. Experts heavily criticize Florida’s new move to hide the true trend! See 🧵

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1426539221213487107