Florida Counties Defy DeSantis and MTG Might Run For President

The David Pakman Show - August 6, 2021

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Florida Counties Protecting Kids From Ron DeSantis

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order a few weeks ago expressly forbidding school districts, counties, and cities from instating mask mandates. DeSantis later threatened to pull state funding from any government entity that violates the policy. This is all while Florida is seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases higher than at any previous point during the pandemic. To further complicate matters, children will be going back to school in a few weeks and none of them under 12 have been immunized since the vaccines have not yet been approved for young children. DeSantis’s executive order is essentially a demand that local officials cannot implement policies that will protect students even in the places in Florida that are getting hit particularly hard by the virus. The policy move by DeSantis was one done to virtue signal and “own the libs” and the result will be the virus spreading even more and reaching vulnerable kids and their family members.

There is hope that DeSantis’s executive action won’t matter however, since now a number of counties in Florida have moved to reinstate mask mandates in violation of the governor’s order. The school boards of Orange County and Broward County have chosen to defy DeSantis’s ban on mask mandates and they did so before the governor was able to issue his follow-up threat to pull funding. When the threat came, Broward County backed off but then something amazing happened. Other counties and school boards joined in on the fight against DeSantis’s policy, including Leon County, Alachua County, and Marion County. This inspired Broward County, which covers Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, to rejoin the fight. If DeSantis decides to follow through with his promise to penalize these local government bodies, it will launch a long series of legal battles that he may not be able to win. The Florida Governor has seen sagging approval numbers recently and is down to only a 44% approval rating in the state according to a recent survey from St. Pete Polls. If he chooses to wage this war while the pandemic continues to rip through the state, that decision would likely serve to damage him even more.

Is Marjorie Taylor Greene Running For President?

Throughout the week, there have been numerous articles coming out about the possibility that Trumpian Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene might be running for president in 2024. Central to this idea is that Greene is going to be making a trip to the Iowa State Fair later this month, an event which is often a launching pad for politicians with presidential aspirations. Now, it’s important to keep in mind that there could be alternative explanations for Greene going to the Iowa State Fair and it doesn’t necessarily mean she wants to run for president. One such reason is that she along with Florida Representative Matt Gaetz have recently been touring the country holding events in praise of Donald Trump and the Trumpist agenda. The pair have had trouble lately booking venues for their events and that’s where the Iowa State Fair comes in. At such an event, Greene and Gaetz would have a captive audience that they can speak in front of and there is little risk of them getting deplatformed by the event organizers. Perhaps Marjorie Taylor Greene does have presidential aspirations but there is next to no chance that she would leapfrog over Donald Trump if the former president decides to run again in the next election cycle.

From yesterday’s show:

Will Joe Biden Actually Try to Mandate Vaccines?

An audience member wrote in asking whether or not Joe Biden will try to pass a national vaccine mandate. There have been several occasions over the past few months where White House staffers have been asked about this by reporters and every time, the answers have been carefully worded to suggest they’re not taking the option off the table. There would be some level of precedent for such a decision looking at old immunization requirements from local governments. The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts back in the early twentieth century passed an ordinance that all adults had to be vaccinated for smallpox or be subject to a $5 fine. Despite this, the Biden administration is unlikely to pass a national vaccine mandate. Biden would be more likely to push governors and mayors to institute such a policy than he would to do it on his own at the federal level. However, such a decision would likely be disastrous politically for whoever tried to enforce it and that may be enough for Biden and other executive officials to avoid this strategy altogether.

--More on the show:

--Farron Cousins, host of Farron Balanced and Ring of Fire, fills in for David

--Republican Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson admits that he was wrong to sign a ban on mask mandates into law back in March

--Arizona Republicans defy a court order to hand over all communications related to their "audit" of the 2020 election

--A Trump crony named Jeffrey Clark, who worked at the Justice Department's civil division, wanted to pressure top DOJ officials into overturning the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia

--The Dixie fire is ripping through parts of California and has essentially destroyed the entire downtown of Greenville

--Senate Democrats push to fine fossil fuel companies $500 billion to pay for damages related to climate change

--Congressional Democrats introduce legislation to give every American an affirmative right to vote

--Are Trump supporters being conned by Trump or are they happy to give him money for nothing?

--Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, who was appointed by Donald Trump, blames FEMA for the shortage of PPE during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic

--On the Bonus Show: College students buying fake vaccine cards, Republicans think voting is a privilege, Mexico sues US gun manufacturers, and much more...

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