2 GOP officials defy Abbott, get haircuts
Two Republican Texas lawmakers on Tuesday defied Governor Greg Abbott's order by getting haircuts in Montgomery County.
County Judge Mark Keough last week walked back previous comments in which he said the governor’s order — which restricts businesses to reduce the spread of COVID-19 — is too vague and that he wouldn't prosecute after the Attorney General published a clarification. Keough declined to comment.
But that clearly hasn't fazed businesses like the barbershop Tune Up: The Manly Salon in Magnolia where state Reps. Steve Toth and Briscoe Cain sat down for a trim, neither wearing face masks, as TV cameras rolled.
Cain, of Deer Park, did not respond to a request for comment but said on camera that he believes businesses should be open and that customers should not be afraid to visit them.
“I wanted to take a stand and lead and be in front to encourage other customers to go out and go to businesses that are being deemed essential or nonessential and help them stay open,” Cain said.
Cain didn’t seem to fear any kind of backlash, tweeting: “It’s just fear mongering. No one is being arrested.”
Stylist Hailey Lankford said law enforcement had been to the location and spoken with owners, but to date there had been no arrests or other enforcement taken against the salon.
Sheriff Rand Henderson has said his office would not make mass arrests at hair salons.
“Our plan during this whole thing was notice and compliance,” Henderson said last week. “We have put some people in jail for curfew, but it was ancillary to other crimes they committed. We aren’t going to go in and make a mass arrest at a barbershop, but for public health purposes, I would discourage it. I certainly don’t want to fill the jail with people getting haircuts.”
Later Tuesday, Abbott announced a new order that will allow hair salons and barbershops, among other businesses, to reopen Friday.
The Woodlands Republican Toth said he believes the shutdown will contribute to millions of small businesses dying out.
“Very often, these small business owners, they put everything in hock in order to get the capital necessary to open up a business,” Toth told Fox. “And the thought that we can just close them down for months at a time and not reopen them immediately puts everyone at risk.”
Toth told Hearst Newspapers that Texans were told the stay-at-home orders for the state were meant to help slow the spread of the new coronavirus.
“We were told back in early March this was all about flattening the curve,” Toth said.
“This was never about being able to stop it, it was only to flatten it. We flattened it and we can continue to flatten the curve by instituting responsible social distancing.”