DeSantis calls President Biden a “lockdowner,” Governor adamant he will not close down Florida

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) - Gov. Ron DeSantis will not lock down Florida.

The Florida governor was on FOX News on Sunday answering questions about a possible domestic travel ban reported on last week by the Miami Herald.

“There’s no basis in reality to do this except to punish a state that is doing it better than what his experts have recommended,” he said.

During the interview, DeSantis said that Florida is “focused on lifting people up,” while “lockdown states” are “putting people out of business” amid the coronavirus pandemic.

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“There’s a whole bunch of things we’ve been doing for COVID, but at the same time, we’ve lifted our state up, we’ve saved our economy and I think we’re going to be first out of gate once we are able to put COVID behind the country,” DeSantis

DeSantis called President Joe Biden a “lockdowner” during the interview and reiterated his stand from a few days ago that a lockdown would not help with the increase of cases of the new COVID variant.

“So there’s no basis in medical, there’s no basis in economics, there’s no basis in reality to do this except to punish a state that is doing it better than what his experts have recommended,: said DeSantis. “Biden is a lockdowner. His experts are lockdowners. Lockdowns don’t work. We’ve demonstrated that. We’re not turning back.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked during a Thursday press briefing about the reported travel ban.

“We are always considering what steps are necessary to keep the American people safe, but we are not currently in the process of -- no decisions have been made around additional public health measures that would delay or would change, I should say, domestic travel considerations,” Psaki said.

The CDC has reported 379 infections of the U.K variant in the Sunshine State, known as B.1.1.7, as of Wednesday. California is the only state to come close to that number with 186 cases.