Wahh! House GOPers Cry Tyranny Over Return Of Mask Rule

By Susie Madrak — July 29, 2021

Oh noes! The House chamber physician has required that people have to wear masks again!

I'll tell you what: One of the first stories I read about the delta variant was about a driver waiting to pick someone up in the Sydney, Australia airport. Just standing there, holding up a sign. Turns out he was carrying the then-rare delta variant, and in the half-hour or so that he was standing there, 36 people caught the variant -- just walking past. So, you know, REALLY CONTAGIOUS. And that means Nancy Pelosi is right that Kevin McCarthy is a moron. But that's redundant.

"Minority leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted, "The return to masks is a decision 'conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state.' He continued that on the House floor, to which Tim Ryan of Ohio responded.

McCARTHY: If you read the CDC recommendation, it said you only should wear the masks for the hot spots. I'm sure the gentleman on the other side know which states and cities are hot spots, because those are the facts. You can see the facts, you can read the facts. You can understand the facts. So what is Washington? The vaccination rate for the members of Congress is over 85%. and as of today, the transmission rate on the Capitol campus is less than 1%. the facts would tell us this isn't a hot spot, so the CDC recommendation doesn't apply to us.

Tim Ryan responded.

RYAN: Look, the attending physician of the United States Capitol, the top doctor for Congress, asks us to put on masks when we come to a chamber with 435 people. I may not be from a hot spot, the speaker may not be from a hot spot, Speaker Pelosi may not be from a hot spot, somebody in this chamber is coming from a hot spot. Somebody represents the hot spots. And they get on a plane and they fly here and they interact with all of us. I just find it absolutely immature and appalling to somehow diminish it to try to score cheap political points and that's exactly what we saw a few minutes ago. That is beneath a minority leader of one of the major political parties in the United States of America. Saying we should take no caution that someone from a hot spot is working in this chamber and could potentially get someone infected that could go home to a sick parent or immune compromised kid. That is beneath us. That is beneath us.

"And there you have Kevin McCarthy ignoring the advice of the attending physician, understanding that members in that chamber go back and forth, you know, members of Congress, when I was in there, you fly back and forth to your district every three or four days a lot of times," Scarborough said.

"And you're in your district, going to town hall meetings and events and you are surrounded by people. So, yes, for the 100 or so members or 50 members that come from hot spots, there's a really good chance somebody's got to bring the delta variant back into that chamber and pass it along and kill somebody or maybe have them go home and get somebody really sick in their family. It's just not hard. And again, you wonder how low the Republican party will go. You wonder how low Kevin McCarthy will go.

"Or you ask a question, is Kevin McCarthy really that stupid? And many would say that's a rhetorical question."