周四，白宫回击了佛罗里达州共和党州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯告诉乔·拜登总统，他将“挡他的路”尽管该国经历了惊人的新冠肺炎病例激增，但新闻秘书珍·普萨基表示，佛罗里达州住院治疗的“事实”不言自明。
在周四与记者的简报会上，美国广播公司新闻记者斯蒂芬妮·拉莫斯(Stephanie Ramos)利用总统周二敦促德桑蒂斯提供帮助或“让开”的言论，提出了德桑蒂斯的最新筹款计划，她询问拜登是否考虑与德桑蒂斯接触。
“好吧，首先，从第一天开始，我们就不是把它作为一个政治问题，而是一个公共健康问题来处理，”普萨基开始说道。“我们与佛罗里达州的官员保持联系，就像我们与全国各地的官员保持联系一样，讨论我们如何从联邦层面提供援助，帮助解决这场公共卫生危机。”
然后，她把暖气开大了。
“事实是——你们都知道的数据是——全国25%的住院病人在佛罗里达州。总督采取了与公共卫生建议背道而驰的措施，这也是事实。所以，我们在这里陈述事实，”她说。
“坦率地说，我们的观点是，这太严重了，严重到不能进行党派之争，”她继续说道。“我们专注于向佛罗里达州人民提供公共卫生数据信息，以确保他们了解自己应该采取哪些措施，即使这些措施不是该州领导层高层采取的。”
后来，在下午一次关于控制汽车排放的活动中，记者们乘坐一辆电动越野车在白宫南草坪车道上短暂兜风后，向拜登询问了德桑蒂斯最近抨击他的言论以及他对大流行的回应。
“总督是谁?”拜登回应道。
在佛罗里达州，至少有四个学区表示，他们正在反对州长的口罩禁令。
白宫冠状病毒应对协调员杰夫·齐恩斯(Jeff Zients)周四表示，在过去24小时内，该国接种了86.4万剂疫苗，这是自7月3日以来的最高日接种量。
齐恩茨说，佛罗里达州是被点名的七个州中疫苗接种率最低的州之一，“尽管不到美国人口的四分之一，但仍占过去一周新增病例和住院人数的一半左右”。
White House fires back at Florida's GOP governor over handling of COVID surge
The White House on Thursday hit back at Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis after hetold President Joe Biden he will stand "in his way"while the country experiences an alarming surge of COVID-19 cases, with press secretary Jen Psaki saying the "facts" about hospitalizations in Florida speak for themselves.
At Thursday's briefing with reporters, ABC News Correspondent Stephanie Ramos raised DeSantis’ latest fundraising push using the president’s comments from Tuesday urging DeSantis to help or "get out of the way," and she asked whether Biden is considering reaching out to DeSantis.
"Well, first, from Day One, we've approached this not as a political issue but a public health issue," Psaki began. "We remain in touch with officials in Florida, just like we're in touch with officials from around the country about how we can provide assistance from the federal level to help address this public health crisis."
Then, she turned up the heat.
"It is a fact -- and data that you all are aware of -- that 25% of hospitalizations in the country are in Florida. It is also a fact that the governor has taken steps that are counter to public health recommendations. So, we're here to state the facts," she said.
"Frankly our view is that this is too serious, deadly serious to be doing partisan name-calling," she continued. "We're focused on providing public health data information to the people of Florida to make sure they understand what steps they should be taking, even if those are not steps taken at the top of the leadership in that state."
Later, after taking a short joyride around the White House South Lawn driveway in an electric SUV during an afternoon event on curbing auto emissions, reporters asked Biden about DeSantis’ recent comments slamming him and his response to the pandemic.
"Governor who?" Biden responded.
In Florida, at least four school districts say they are pushing back against the governor’s mask ban.
It comes as the country has seen 864,000 vaccinations in the last 24 hours, the highest daily number since July 3, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said Thursday.
Florida is among the seven states officials named that have some of the lowest vaccination rates and "account for about half of new cases and hospitalizations in the past week, despite making up less than a quarter of the U.S. population," Zients said.
