Media Interviews Mom Raging Over DeSantis Telling Her Son to Take Off Mask - It Blows Up in Her Face
A Florida mom was hilariously lampooned on Twitter after her hypocritical, self-owning rant against Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis went viral.
Dawn Marshall, the mother of a student at Middleton High School in Tampa, told WFLA-TV on Wednesday that she was furious because the governor had told students they could take off their masks if they wanted to.
“You do not have to wear those masks,” DeSantis told students while walking toward the podium for a news conference at the University of South Florida. “I mean, please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything and we’ve got to stop with this COVID theater.
“So if you want to wear it, fine. But this is ridiculous.”
NEW: @GovRonDeSantis annoyed with USF students—
“You do not have to wear those masks. Please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything. We’ve gotta stop with this Covid theater. So if you wanna wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous.”https://t.co/7j1Pb2hV53 @WFLA pic.twitter.com/ZIOyTHLOh3
— Evan Donovan (@EvanDonovan) March 2, 2022
Marshall disingenuously twisted DeSantis’ words to suggest that he thinks “parents don’t matter” and that he wouldn’t allow people to wear masks even if they wanted to.
“It’s just shocking that the governor told these kids, ‘Take off your mask,'” the maskless mom told WFLA. “He pretty much said, ‘Take off your mask, it’s stupid. And take off your mask, your parents don’t matter.'”
When asked if he took his mask off at the event, Marshall’s son, Eric, said he did.
The WFLA reporter then tried to entrap the teen into blaming DeSantis for his own actions.
Eric initially hesitated before claiming he felt some pressure from the governor to unmask.
“Did you feel pressured by the governor to do that?” the reporter asked.
“A little,” Eric said. “It was more of pressure of an adult figure asking me to do something and it’s just like, ‘Alright, why not.'”
“I took mine off.”
“Did you feel pressure by the governor to do that?”
“A little.”
This @HillsboroughSch senior’s mom says she’s very upset and it was “shocking” for Gov. DeSantis to ask her son & the other high school students to take off their masks. https://t.co/JNYeA9dYci pic.twitter.com/W6WZbAOKh8
— Justin Schecker (@WFLAJustin) March 3, 2022
Numerous Twitter users mocked Marshall over the absurd optics of her pushing mask-wearing for her son while blithely forgoing a mask herself.
Why isn’t she wearing a mask then https://t.co/gXzoRIX4BR
— Christina Pushaw ?? (@ChristinaPushaw) March 3, 2022
Kid is wearing a mask while maskless mom complains about masks.
This is the very definition of COVID theater. ? https://t.co/EDFVp6YnsY
— Fuzzy Chimp ?? (@fuzzychimpcom) March 3, 2022
Why is she not wearing her mask but forces her kid to wear a piece of cloth? https://t.co/DW95SzbctA
— Daniel Di Martino ?????? (@DanielDiMartino) March 3, 2022
Wow. This mother is a horrible person, parading her kid around on camera as a political prop. The kid doesn’t care about this at all. His parents just can’t pass up the opportunity to get attention. https://t.co/ntc6Fx0fb1
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) March 3, 2022
Other commentators observed that Eric looked thrilled to tear his mask off.
Yeah he looked really upset! ? Total hacks pic.twitter.com/S3l6iHFMuX
— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) March 3, 2022
He looks pretty happy to be taking off that mask. pic.twitter.com/BwZcJIdf3E
— Twice_Unforgiven (@TwiceUnforgiven) March 3, 2022
— Christina Pushaw ?? (@ChristinaPushaw) March 3, 2022
On Thursday, DeSantis cleverly fundraised off the absurd incident while reiterating that coronavirus mask mandates are contrived “political theater.”
“While in Tampa, I told a group of students masks were ridiculous, and they didn’t have to wear them if they didn’t want to,” a campaign email read.
“Predictably, the leftist propagandists in our media had a meltdown and called me a ‘bully’ for allowing children to breathe fresh air.”
New: @RonDeSantisFL sent out this campaign fundraiser email following yesterday’s incident asking the high school students to take their masks off. (Had he walked up to the podium and said nothing I would not have interviewed those families last night).https://t.co/G0vW9Qed4f pic.twitter.com/HvO1W9D7Dd
— Justin Schecker (@WFLAJustin) March 3, 2022
DeSantis continued: “Let’s not forget that just 36 hours ago, Joe Biden and the radical Democrat hypocrites were parading around the Capitol without masks, and without so much as a peep from the corporate press, but suddenly, permitting children to unmask is ‘unacceptable.'”
It is absolutely unforgiveable what these QUACKS have done to our children over the past two years. #masks #SOTU #ampFW pic.twitter.com/EtpdbQMt6I
— FreedomWorks (@FreedomWorks) March 3, 2022
The Harvard-educated attorney also pointed to a farcical incident involving Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams, who blithely went maskless while surrounded by a group of masked children.
In so many ways, this picture embodies the elitism, arrogance, cruelty, science denial, and glib authoritarianism of Joe Biden’s Democrat Party. https://t.co/hUkLNBKa1I
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) February 6, 2022
“Where was the media meltdown when failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams recently took a maskless photo in front of students who were forced to wear masks?” DeSantis wrote.
“This is just further proof that COVID theater is all politics and is not based on any real medical science.”
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