Education Secretary Smacks Down Ron DeSantis' Attempt To Punish School Districts For Defying Him

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona lashed out at Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis this week, saying that the Department of Education would take care of any school district that gets punished for implementing mask mandates, while also suggesting that banning these mandates was illegal. DeSantis has no logical reason to ban the mandates - the decision is purely political and therefore likely won't hold up in court. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Education secretary Miguel Cardona came out this past weekend and basically issued a warning to Republican governors that are threatening to punish school districts for implementing mask mandates. And of course, we all know exactly who Cardona is talking about. He's talking about Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, because even though he is not the only Republican governor that has implemented bans on mask mandates, he is the only one who is actively working to punish school districts who put mask mandates in place in direct defiance of him. And education secretary Cardona says this isn't going to fly. First of all, Cardona says, we're pretty sure this is illegal anyway, that you do not in fact have the authority to do this, following up on Biden's threat last week to sue people like Ron DeSantis for putting these orders in place.

But Cardona also went out and said, listen, we have your back. School districts who lose your funding because DeSantis is following through with that now, um, he said, we're going to give you your money. So you don't need to worry about that. You do what you have to do to protect these students. In fact, he said, we have to do everything in our power to keep them safe. I spoke to the superintendents of those two communities and I let them know that we have their back and yes, they can draw down on the funds that were promised to them so they can safely reopen schools. It's also important to point out that this isn't a bunch of Democrat run school districts here in Florida that are defying DeSantis. Most of these are areas that are controlled by Republicans. The school boards are Republicans, and they're still defying DeSantis because they want to keep their students safe.

But here's the thing, I wish the Biden administration would go forward with the lawsuits already. I don't feel it's necessary to sit there and issue these warnings. We know DeSantis is not going to change tracks. He is not going to reverse course and say, oh my God, I made a mistake. I wish I hadn't done this. Go ahead and put your mask. No, this guy is a stubborn sob that doesn't want to ever have to admit that he was wrong. Just like Donald Trump. And so every time they come out and threaten him, he redoubles down on it and says absolutely not. He doesn't care how many children end up in the ICU here in the state of Florida. He doesn't care how many of his own supporters he puts in an early grave. The man is incapable, much like Trump himself, of admitting that he screwed up or that he wasn't the smartest guy in the room. So move forward with those lawsuits because here's what people need to understand about this.

Yes, okay, the governor does authority to implement safety protocols in the interest of the state's health, safety and welfare. However, even if he tried to use these emergency powers that he has under the Florida constitution, he would have to prove that this was in the best interest of the state if this came to court and that's physically impossible to do. You cannot say that banning mask mandates in the middle of a pandemic is in the state's best interest. What would be revealed was that he did this for partisan political purposes to pander to his idiotic base and therefore it would not hold up in court, most likely, never can predict these things a hundred percent. In a just world it would definitely be struck down.