Florida’s governor on Wednesday night announced live on air clemency for everyone in his state who’s being punished for breaking COVID rules.
Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of the state, appeared on Fox News to make the announcement.
He was flanked by Mike and Jillian Carnevale, gym owner from Plantation, Florida, who were repeatedly arrested for refusing to enforce a mask mandate.
The state itself didn’t have mask mandates, as Ron DeSantis spoke strongly against them throughout the height of the pandemic, but individual counties and municipalities did have them, despite Ron DeSantis protesting against them.
Ron DeSantis said that now, people who were ensnared by the local rules will have their slate wiped clean.
Mike Carnevale was first arrested on July 27, for what their supporters, in a GoFundMe page to fund their legal expenses, described as taking a stand for the health and freedom of his community and country.
He was arrested twice more, on August 6, and August 7, for not enforcing facial coverings during strenuous exercise. Jillian Carnevale was also arrested on August 7.
Ron DeSantis said that the couple will be given clemency, describing the punishment as a total overreach and that the same deal will be given to everyone in his state.
‘I’m glad you have Mike and Jillian on, and I’m also glad to be on to be able to say that effective tomorrow morning, I’m going to sign a reprieve under my constitutional authority,’ he said.
‘So that will delay the case for 60 days against both of them, and then when our clemency board meets in the coming weeks, we’ll issue pardons not only for Mike and Jillian but for any Floridian that may have outstanding infractions for things like masks and social distancing.’
Ron DeSantis earlier this month lifted all of the state’s remaining COVID rules saying the state was no longer in a state of emergency.
Ron DeSantis was at a waterfront restaurant in St Petersburg when he signed SB-2006, a bill that enables him to override all local rules and bans vaccine passports from July 1 onward.
Florida is amongst only five states that have opened fully, according to a tally being kept by Multistate, a government relations firm.
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas and Georgia all have 100 per cent scores on the firm’s tally when it comes to being completely open. Eight other states are almost all the way open, with a 96 score. Illinois is the lowest with 45 and New York is 52, while California is 50.
As for the clemency, Florida is the first state in the US to issue such clemency, and Ron DeSantis has placed himself throughout the pandemic as a pro-Trump defence against Democrat authoritarianism.
The number of people affected remains unclear.
The Orlando Sentinel reported at the end of October for perspective, just in Miami Dade County alone, there were 1,882 citations issued totalling $760,600.
Now some people are saying that Ron DeSantis is the best governor in the United States and that he runs the state with common sense, and that maybe he might make a great president.
And Ron DeSantis is setting himself up as a very strong Grand Old Party (GOP) competitor to take down naive Joe Biden in 2024, that’s if he lives that long, and we need leaders that will completely obliterate the great reset and green new deal, and perhaps Ron DeSantis is the man.
It seems that this gentleman sets the criteria for how to run a free country, and if this is the case, then Ron DeSantis needs to be at the helm, and I think he’ll have a lot of people’s votes.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 