GOP senator says he disagrees with DeSantis on mask mandates

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on Sunday said he disagrees with the order by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) that bans mask mandates in local schools. 

“I’m a conservative. I think you govern best when you govern closest to the people being governed,” Cassidy said when asked about the issue during an interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“And if a local community is having a — their ICU is full, and the people at the local schools see that they’ve got to make sure they stay open because otherwise children miss out for another year of school, and they put in policy, then the local officials should be listened to,” Cassidy said.

“I don’t want to top down from Washington, D.C. I don’t want to top down from a governor’s office,” he added.

DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) both recently signed orders that ban mask mandates in public schools. 

The orders come as the country is seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases, particularly in those two states, driven largely by the highly infectious delta variant.

The directives angered local officials who hoped to implement mitigation measures ahead of students returning to schools in the fall amid the current spike in infections. The move also frustrated President Biden.

The president and DeSantis exchanged criticism throughout the week, with Biden urging DeSants to “get out of the way” and the governor telling the president to “do your job.”

Cassidy said that if COVID-19 conditions in his state were dire, he would allow local officials to “make those decisions best for their community.”

“When it comes to local conditions, if my hospital is full and my vaccination rate is low and infection rate is going crazy, we should allow local officials to make those decisions best for their community,” the Republican senator said.

Cassidy’s home state of Louisiana is also experiencing an alarming surge in COVID-19 cases from the delta variant.