Ron DeSantis Will Pardon Anyone Charged for Not Following Mask or Social Distancing Rules
Evan James
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that he will pardon anyone in his state charged with violating mask or social distancing mandates.
Appearing on Fox News, Gov. DeSantis told Laura Ingraham that punishing people for defying COVID-19 mandates is a “total overreach.”
“It’s a total overreach,” he said. “These things with health should be advisory, they should not be punitive.”
Also on air at the time were business owners Mike and Jillian Carnevale, who faced up to four months in jail for permitting their customers to go maskless at their Broward County gym. DeSantis announced his pardon promise directly to the Carnevales and their attorney.
“I’m glad you have Mike and Jillian on, and I’m also glad to be on to be able to say that effective tomorrow morning, I’m going to sign a reprieve under my constitutional authority,” he said. “So that will delay the case for 60 days against both of them, and then when our clemency board meets in the coming weeks, we’ll issue pardons not only for Mike and Jillian, but for any Floridian that may have outstanding infractions for things like masks and social distancing.”
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Is Ron DeSantis the best governor in the United States or what? Earlier this month he also suspended all local COVID-19 orders in the Sunshine State:
Florida governor Ron DeSantis has said that he is taking executive action to suspend all local COVID-19 emergency orders. His executive action will, according to CBS12, “immediately suspend” the emergency orders and then invalidate them by July 1.
“We’ll […] sign an executive order […] invalidating all remaining local emergency COVID orders, effective on July 1st,” DeSantis announced Monday morning. “But then to bridge the gap between then and now, I’m going to suspend, under my executive power, the local emergency orders as it relates to COVID.”
DeSantis’ announcement came during a news conference at a St. Petersburg restaurant. He added that his executive order is fully justifiable in light of the both the science and the state’s COVID data.
“I think that’s the evidence-based thing to do,” DeSantis said before receiving a brief round of applause. “I think folks that are saying that they need to be policing people at this point—if you’re saying that, you really are saying you don’t believe in the vaccines, you don’t believe in the data, you don’t believe in the science.”
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