What do Paul Gosar of Arizona, Jim Banks of Indiana, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Ted Budd of North Carolina, Mark Green of Tennessee, Darrell Issa of California, Ronny Jackson of Texas, Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Devin Nunes of California, and Greg Steube of Florida have in common?
They are all members of Congress. They are all speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando this weekend. They all skipped today’s votes in Congress and signed a letter saying they could not do their jobs “due to the ongoing health emergency.”
Here is CNN:
The move is especially surprising given that Republicans were furious critics of the system to vote by proxy during the coronavirus pandemic, even suing over it and often ridiculing Democrats for staying at home and demanding they return to Washington.
“Leaders show up no matter how uncertain the times are,” Cawthorn tweeted last summer. “The Democrats are cowards for not showing up to work.”
Top Democrats on Friday reacted strongly to the news, first reported by CNN.”
Apparently hypocrisy has become a tenant of the Republican Party,” said House Rules Chairman Jim McGovern, a Democrat of Massachusetts. “Let me get this straight: these Members can’t vote in person because of the pandemic, but they manage to attend CPAC? They were even maskless at this super spreader event. It’s outrageous!”
To vote by proxy, lawmakers must sign a letter with the House clerk and allow another member to vote at their direction and on their behalf. The letters, which are filed with the House clerk’s office, say: “I am unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing public health emergency.”
Friday is a critical day in the House, where Democrats are pushing through a massive Covid relief plan — though all the Republicans at CPAC are expected to oppose the measure. There have been other votes in the House through the course of the day.
Republicans aren’t the only ones who have misused this process.
Democrats in the past have signed similar letters, saying they couldn’t attend because of the public health emergency, voting by proxy instead even though their failure to show up had nothing to do with the pandemic.
Read the entire piece here.
This is all very interesting. These congressmen are citing the “public health emergency” as their reason to skip votes and go to Orlando for CPAC. I am not sure how they reconcile their excuse for missing votes with past statements about coronavirus:
In September 2020, Paul Gosar said that the pandemic was hyped up by Trump’s enemies. Has he changed his mind? If he hasn’t, then why would he use “public health emergency” as his excuse for missing votes?
Darrell Issa believes that COVID-19 was “manufactured” by the Democrats. Again, has he changed his mind? If he hasn’t, then why would he use “public health emergency” as his excuse for missing votes?
Ronny Jackson thinks wearing masks should be a “personal choice.”
Ralph Norman was part of this video.
Devin Nunes says it is OK to go out to eat at a restaurant, but he can’t do his job in Congress because we are in a “public health emergency.”
