Florida has the most Covid-19 cases per capita
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms says that she doesn’t think it is happenstance that the lawsuit brought against her by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp came the day after President Trump visited, and she pointed out that he was violating city law by not wearing a mask.
She said she thinks Kemp “is putting politics over people.”
“It’s interesting even when you look at the decision making of our governor, and I’ll remind you, this is the same governor who didn’t know until well into the pandemic that it could be spread by asymptomatic transmission,” Lance Bottoms said in an interview on the Today show this morning,
“He didn’t go to Emory for guidance he didn’t go to the CDC for guidance. He went to Augusta University which I’m sure is a fine University in our state but it’s certainly not Emory University or the CDC in terms of its expertise with infectious disease control, so he was searching for an answer. He got it. And it’s the same answer and the same playbook that we’ve seen come out of the White House,” she added.
Some context: Kemp filed a lawsuit against Lance Bottoms over Atlanta’s mask mandate, citing the measure violates his emergency orders prohibiting local leaders from adding to the state’s requirements to protect against coronavirus.
Also cited is Lance Bottoms’ request that the city roll back to a phase one level of reopening. In a statement issued earlier this month, Kemp has called this “confusing guidance” for businesses and Atlanta residents.
The mayor says that she will “absolutely” prevail in court.
“At the end of the day, this is about saving lives, over 3,100 people have died in our state 106,000 have tested positive — myself, my husband and one of my children are among the positive. I’m in quarantine as we speak. So I take this very seriously, and I will continue to do everything in my power to protect the people of Atlanta, and the Governor has simply overstepped his bounds in his authority, and we’ll see him in court,” she said.