“We will fight to stop these reckless actions and subject people to pandemic politics,” Kemp wrote.
Kemp on Wednesday banned localities from ordering people to wear masks in public to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Mayors across the state responded to Kemp and accused him of playing politics during a pandemic.
From the coastal city of Savannah to the county that maintains the University of Georgia in the state capital, local officials have ordered Georgia residents to mask themselves while in public as cases continue to rise.
“I think the city of Atlanta still has the right position to order masks,” Bottoms said in a statement. press conference on Thursday. “Especially when it comes to buildings and places that we own and operate.”
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson told MSNBC on Thursday that he was “stunned” by Kemp’s order Wednesday.
“On the one hand we are fighting against Covid. On the other hand, we are fighting our governor, ”said Johnson. “Our hands should be working fully and unequivocally to combat this virus, but unfortunately, for whatever reason, our governor has continually chosen and has chosen to make a public health emergency a type of political problem.”
Johnson promised to continue providing skins in your city and wrote on Twitter that Kemp “doesn’t give a damn” about his constituents. The Savannah Mask Mandate entered into force on July 1.
In Athens-Clarke County, Mayor Kelly Girtz also criticized the governor’s executive order, which struck down county ordinance that required wearing masks in public.
“We wanted science to guide us,” Girtz told CNN, adding that he had been in contact with other mayors and that he believed that local mask orders would remain in effect.
“In Texas, in Alabama, Republican governors understand that science must lead the way,” said Girtz. “Even if there was some reluctance before in this strange national environment we’ve been in, at the end of the day we need to protect the health of the people who live here.”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said it was the role of local governments to dictate mask policies and said the president was not considering a mandate at the national level.
“We let localities make the decisions regarding facial coatings,” McEnany said at a press conference on Thursday.
Republicans across the South defy the mandates of the masks and claim they infringe on personal liberties.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry issued an official statement this week arguing that Governor John Bel Edwards’ state mask mandate was unconstitutional. In Florida, a Republican state legislator is demand localities on the grounds that his mask mandates violate the state constitution.
A similar conflict around Kemp broke out in the spring, when he attracted criticism from Republicans and Democrats for trying to reopen the state economy. While Kemp opposes the mask mandates, he is publicly urging Georgians to wear masks voluntarily.
Anthony Fauci, a public face of the Trump administration’s coronavirus efforts, dismissed the narrative Thursday that applying measures to promote public health, including wearing masks and social distancing, was antithetical to propping up the economy.
Speaking during a discussion with Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook, Fauci said there was a growing disparity in the number of cases between parts of the northeast and several southern states, where the blockades have been more lax.
“There has been this unusual and unfortunate mentality that there are public health measures and the economy is recovering and these are opposite measures,” Fauci said. “We should consider public health measures as a vehicle or a gateway to reopen the country, to regain the economy.”
Georgia has recorded 3,091 coronavirus deaths and 127,834 cases as of Thursday, according to The COVID monitoring project.
“It has nothing to do with politics,” Johnson, the mayor of Savannah, told CNN on Thursday afternoon. “It is about protecting our people.”
Matthew Choi contributed reporting.
