Friday on Twitter, Sen. Richard Blumenthal described Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s decision to take legal action against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the federal government — for leaving the cruise industry in a perpetual state of limbo — as a “craven political stunt.”
DeSantis announced legal action against the CDC and federal government during a press conference at Port Miami on Thursday, attributing the decision to the government effectively locking down the entire industry for over a year with no clear end in sight for the industry, which the Miami Herald reports is “responsible for nearly $9 billion in annual economic impact to Florida.”
“This is not reasonable. This is not rational,” DeSantis said, explaining it is time to “vindicate the state’s rights and the rights of the state in court and also vindicate the livelihoods of the tens of thousands of Floridians who depend on this industry.”
“Gov. DeSantis suing the CDC is a craven political stunt pandering to cruise companies,” Blumenthal said, accusing the Florida governor of seeming to care “more about their profits than passengers at risk of COVID-19. No way should the CDC send cruise ships to sea now,” he added, as if the CDC gets to determine whether cruise ships continue their business.
DeSantis asserted that the industry “doesn’t need a bureaucratic overseer to ensure the safety of its customers” — especially not a bureaucratic overseer whose political agenda is to punish Florida and its Republican governor for defiance.