WH says GOP Fla. Gov. DeSantis doesn't want to participate in effort to 'kneecap' the virus
White House press secretary Jen Psaki mentioned the hundreds of ventilators the U.S. Department of Health and Human services is sending to Florida and said the White House is not at war with Gov. Ron DeSantis, but rather at war with the coronavirus.
Video Transcript
- Does the White House know who in Florida made the request for hundreds of more ventilators from the strategic national stockpile?
- Well, I would say, Caitlin, I saw the remarks and comments by the governor and representatives of the governor. I would note that as a policy we don't send ventilators to states without their interest in receiving the ventilators. I think the most important question here is, why would you oppose receiving ventilators when you clearly need those in your state, given the percentage of hospitalizations that are occurring in Florida?
- Do you think it's feasible the governor was unaware that those ventilators were sent to his state earlier this week?
- I think that's really a question for the governor and his team.
- A headline from the New York Post from, I believe, two days ago, Team Biden's war on DeSantis is all about knee-capping a successful GOP governor. Could you address that concern, please?
- Our war is not on DeSantis, it's on the virus, which we're trying to knee-cap, and he does not seem to want to participate in that effort to knee-cap the virus, hence our concern.
