Florida’s only Democrat elected statewide denounced Gov. Ron DeSantis’ special session called for later this month targeting COVID-19 restrictions.
Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried says lawmakers should focus instead on why so many Floridians have died from COVID-19.
DeSantis called the special session for Nov. 15th in response to federal and local efforts to fight the pandemic.
Citing personal freedom and parental rights, he wants lawmakers to block COVID-19 vaccine mandates and strip schools of the power to require masks or impose quarantines.
Fried, who hopes to run against DeSantis next year, says the session is a political stunt.
“We owe it to the nearly 60,000 to look at what happened during this pandemic, what went right, what went so wrong that resulted in so many preventable deaths after we had the tools to beat this through vaccination,” she said during a press conference. “That is what deserves a special session.”
Fried says she hopes lawmakers will rein in DeSantis’ “extremist” requests.
Copyright 2021 WMFE. To see more, visit WMFE.