Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey was among the Republican governors who lashed out at President Joe Biden for announcing new coronavirus measures.
On Twitter, Ducey described Biden's approach as "dictatorial" and "un-American."
This\u00a0dictatorial approach is wrong, un-American and will do far more harm than good. How many workers will be displaced? How many kids kept out of classrooms? How many businesses fined? The vaccine is and should be a choice. We must and will push back. 2/2— Doug Ducey (@Doug Ducey) 1631218792
Ducey's comments were found to be "sorta funny" by Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts, who wrote a scathing column about his record handling the pandemic.
"This is a governor who, when the pandemic began, barred cities and counties from mandating masks, until the virus got so out of control across the state that he did a U-turn and let them govern," Roberts reminded readers. "This is a governor who, as the school year began, dictated to K-12 school districts that they can't require vaccinations, can't require masks and can't even require unvaccinated students to stay home for 10 days, should they be exposed to COVID-19."
She didn't stop there, as she kept listing how Ducey had attempted to impose his view on others. Roberts noted how he "bungled" an attempt to ban colleges and universities from employing vaccine or mask mandates and used an executive order against Tuscon's attempts requiring city employees get vaccinated.
Roberts wrote that "Ducey's orders blocking schools, cities and counties from taking common sense steps to slow the spread of a highly contagious virus — steps recommended by public health officials up and down the line — is the definition of 'big government overreach.'"
On Thursday, the Arizona Department of Health Services reported 62 more coronavirus fatalities, raising the total number of deaths in the state to 19,141.
In July of 2020, The Arizona Republic pushed an obituary for Mark Anthony Urquiza that went viral.
"Mark, like so many others, should not have died from COVID-19. His death is due to the carelessness of the politicians who continue to jeopardize the health of brown bodies through a clear lack of leadership, refusal to acknowledge the severity of this crisis, and inability and unwillingness to give clear and decisive direction on how to minimize risk," the obituary read.
After the obituary went viral, the victim's daughter, Kristin Urquiza, said Ducey "has blood on his hands" for her father's death and spoke on the pandemic at the 2020 DNC Convention.
After seeing Ducey's response to Biden, she described the GOP governor as on "Team Pro-COVID."
So let me get this straight, it's okay for you to "overreach" (e.g. withhold funding to schools who want to mask) but not the Feds?\n\nNothing surprising here folks, @dougducey continues to be Team #ProCOVID. \n\n#Arizona #COVID #MarkedByCOVIDhttps://twitter.com/dougducey/status/1436061511445729288\u00a0\u2026— Kristin Urquiza #MarkedByCOVID (@Kristin Urquiza #MarkedByCOVID) 1631227171
