New Jersey governor defends easing mask mandates, predicts other will follow suit with warmer weather

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) on Sunday defended his recent decision to lift the mask mandate for schools in his state and predicted that local government will follow suit as warmer weather begins to set in.

“Our numbers are improving and I would use the word ‘dramatically,'” Murphy said while appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“Rate of transmission, positivity rate hospitalizations, cases in school transmissions — all going in a dramatically good direction,” Murphy added. “The fact of the matter is our experience is very different right now from the average American state’s experience.”

Murphy was among the handful of Democratic governors this past week who moved to ease or lift mask mandates in their states.

President Biden said in an interview, however, that their actions may be “premature.”

Murphy stated on Sunday that while the state of the pandemic is much more complex on the national scale, the situation in New Jersey has led him to decide that the school mask mandate is no longer necessary.

“My gut tells me, particularly as we get into warmer weather in the spring and assuming the virus continues to go in the right direction, you’ll have the overwhelming a lot of districts following suit and lifting the mandate,” he said.

Host Margaret Brennan noted that Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) is currently facing litigation for a similar move and asked Murphy if he is concerned about facing similar consequences.

“They’ve done that backwards. They basically banned mandates and then said to the district, ‘Sue us to get that overturned.’ We’ve done the exact opposite,” Murphy said, pointing out that districts are still permitted to require masks.