Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday he and his administration will stay focused on fighting the spread of coronavirus in the state, despite articles of impeachment filed against him by four state assemblymen from his own Republican Party.
"They have a right to file anything they want to," DeWine said on "CBS This Morning." "We're going to stay focused on what we have to ... we're being hit very, very hard."
DeWine has faced protests because of his tough stance and early action against the novel coronavirus. Monday, the four GOP lawmakers made their efforts official, filing a dozen articles of impeachment against him on claims that he was in violation of state and federal laws by ordering some businesses to close and for enforcing a statewide public mask mandate, reports The Washington Post.
"Rather than hearing the cries of Ohioans, Gov. DeWine continues to stifle those cries by finding more inventive ways to use masks to muffle the voices of the people," state Rep. John Becker, one of the four filing the articles, said in a statement posted on Facebook.
The lawmakers, in their statement, also accused the governor of meddling in the presidential election, illegally closing churches, and weaponizing the unemployment system.
DeWine, though, said the lawmakers should focus more on the people on the front lines of the COVID-19 epidemic and on the deaths of at least 6,429 people in the state.
"What I said yesterday in our press conference when I got that question is they should talk to the first line nurses," DeWine told CBS News Tuesday. "I think when they listen to them, it's pretty clear, we have to do whatever we can to slow this virus down."
DeWine, a former U.S. senator, was first elected governor in 2018. His aggressive action on COVID at first earned him praise but eventually drew criticism after he delayed the Ohio primary election and enacted several statewide closures of restaurants, schools, and more.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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