President Biden criticizes Mississippi and Texas for lifting mask mandate

President Joe Biden sharply criticizing Texas and Mississippi for lifting coronavirus restrictions, saying: “The last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that, in the meantime everything’s fine, take off your mask. Forget it.”

During a meeting with lawmakers, Biden denounced the move to reverse COVID-19 safety policies including mask mandates and accused the Republican governors of the two states of “Neanderthal thinking.”

Both Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves and Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced this week they are lifting mask mandates and allowing all businesses to operate at full capacity.

Governor Reeves today saying “numbers in Mississippi simply no longer justify government overreach and that Mississippians can make their own decisions.” Reeves said, “Given how long ago, um, Mr. Biden was elected to the U S Congress, he certainly should know how Neanderthals think. But here’s the reality: I trust the people in Mississippi to make the right decisions. I trust the American people to make the right decisions. The fact of the matter is you cannot focus on data and science and making good decisions on those days when the numbers are going up and ignore the data and the science on those days when the numbers are going down.”

Reeves citing the declining number of new COVID-19 cases and the increasing availability of vaccines as reasons for ending the restrictions, but federal officials have been warning that the decline in new cases appears to be stalling out and that the emergence of new COVID-19 variants could lead to a resurgence.