Governor DeWine faced questions about impeachment over his handling of the coronavirus, and addressed the state and its media about the spread in rural counties.
Ohio Republican legislators drafted articles of impeachment this week, but DeWine seems unbothered.
“Have at it if members of the General Assembly want to spend their time on this,” said the Governor during Tuesday’s press briefing.
Saying his conservative values are why he made the choices he did, but understood disagreement over decisions made by him and his administration. But while those asking for impeachment questioned his conservative values, he fought back saying the measures reflect his conservative stance.
“That’s all about preserving and protecting liberty, freedom, and our way of live,” says DeWine.
And that lawmakers, could focus on issues he says are more pressing.
“Dealing on the violence we have out there, when we have bills that we know will make a difference that will save lives,” says DeWine of pending gun reform bills in the legislature. “Instead of some of the police reforms we’ve talked about and by the way, these reforms are being put together by representatives of police. These are the things representative should spend their time worrying about.”
DeWine took a moment from the coronavirus discussion to talk about another deadly epidemic, gun violence.
He says the more than 20 shootings and 14 gun deaths statewide over the weekend are a call to action to pass that pending legislation like SB 221at the statehouse.
“The bottom line is this those who illegally possess guns are often times the ones who use them again,” says DeWine. “Ohio’s failure to address felons who carry guns and use them to commit crimes, allows the individuals to wreak havoc in these communities and stay in those communities.”
The Governor also addressed his order on high school sports, saying that the guidelines are to allow family to attend their children’s events. Outdoor venues are limited to fewer than 1500 spectators or 15 percent of capacity, and indoor venues limited to fewer than 300 or 15 percent of capacity
“We know that the fixed seating capacity of some sports venues may not allow this to happen, that’s why we are allowing a variance,” says DeWine
For districts that want to have more family spectators than the order allows, they can ask for a variance from the local health department, who will work with state and local officials to evaluate the variance plan.
“The local health department will take the first action and we will follow up,” says DeWine
As far as coronavirus spread, DeWine says that incident rates in rural counties is a top focus.
“You see our continued spread into rural ohio, now our top ten counties all have populations at or below 60,000,” says DeWine.
