Red state governors reject Biden on mask orders

[left-of-center2012]

President-elect Joe Biden says he'll personally call red state governors and persuade them to impose mask mandates to slow down the coronavirus pandemic. Their early response: Don’t waste your time. Almost all of the 16 Republican governors who oppose statewide mask mandates are ready to reject Biden’s plea, they told POLITICO or declared in public statements ...

South Dakota’s Kristi Noem, Oklahoma’s Kevin Stitt and Nebraska’s Pete Ricketts, whose states are engulfed by new cases, say mask wearing should remain a personal choice, not a legal obligation — despite recommendations from health officials and updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control stressing that masks protect the wearer, not just people nearby, from infection.

“Governor Noem has provided her people with the full scope of the science, facts, and data regarding the virus, and then she has trusted them to exercise their personal responsibility to make the best decisions for themselves and their loved-ones,” Noem spokesperson Ian Fury wrote in an email. “She will not be changing that approach.”

“If President-elect Biden is indeed confirmed to be the next president, and he approaches me about a mask mandate, I would not be going along with a mask mandate,” Ricketts said during a press briefing on Tuesday. “As far as a mandate, I’ve been very clear I don’t think this it’s the right thing to do,” Stitt, who was infected with the coronavirus earlier this year, said at a briefing on Tuesday. “This is a personal responsibility."

Biden plans to implement a science-driven pandemic strategy as soon as he’s sworn in, and has said that if governors aren’t receptive to his arguments, he will take the crusade to the local level by calling mayors and county leaders and urging them to enact mask orders.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/13/republican-governors-reject-biden-mask-orders-436385

[Zoonart]

1. These assholes are KILLING people.

[Wounded Bear]

2. Pres Biden has Twitter, too...

[jpak]

3. And these assholes have no objection to Druumph withholding vaccine

From NY

Maybe they should think about this?

[Eliot Rosewater]

4. Arrest them for voluntary manslaughter NOW

The ONLY reason they are doing this is because the single DUMBEST and most CORRUPT human on EARTH told them to.

That is the amazing part.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

5. COVIDIOT land

[NightWatcher]

6. Red staters had a year to try their plans out. Praying didn't work

Now we do science.

[RainCaster]

7. Medical funds can be distributed based upon how the states comply with medical mandates

It sounds harsh, but it may be needed, as the pandemic rages on. More money could be allocated to states that abide the behavior mandates like masks, distancing, etc.

[DonaldsRump]

8. Cut off federal funding as far as possible to these states

Kristi Noem, for example, is an idiot, and because of her stupidity, that should not affect law abiding folks elsewhere.

Most of these red states are net takers, rather than contributors, to the federal government's budget, so this is entirely fitting.

[Buckeyeblue]

11. Yes. We used to hold highway funding over state's heads.

I would hold all the funding I could. These are mostly all taker states anyway.

[DonaldsRump]

12. And require that these states/localities report instances of non-mask wearing

to health insurance companies of these fools who do not wear masks, much like driving violations are reported to auto insurance companies. These RWNJs don't like "socialism", so why should law-abiding insureds have to subsidize these idiots' "constitutional rights" that will just drive up health care costs? Bottom line: if you don't wear a mask, you deal with all the problems that happen to you or others on health insurance plans by yourself: don't bother us with your illness. Isn't that exactly how you treat all other issues?

[Buckeyeblue]

16. Yes. I agree. Don't use my premiums to pay for their negligence.

[Vivienne235729]

9. fine. don't ask for federal help for covid then. you make your bed. now lie in it.

[634-5789]

10. These assholes will fight Joe tooth and nail.

[Cha]

13. Fine.. you've been Warned.. Ignore at

your Own COVID PERIL.

[flamingdem]

14. Why spend federal funds for Covid on these places that just generate more covid

due to the politics and stupidity of their leaders?

Let's just stop coddling toddlers

[spanone]

15. Sad that governors can possess such malignant ignorance

and have no regard for the lives of their constituents