Sen. Brown’s mask request triggers a GOP fury
The nation’s fight over masks hit the floor of the U.S. Senate this week when Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown implored a Republican senator to wear a mask – triggering Republican ire.
“I’d start by asking the presiding officer to please wear a mask as he speaks,” a masked Brown said Monday before getting cut off.
Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan responded: “I don’t wear a mask when I’m speaking, like most senators. I don’t need your instruction.”
Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, warned that Sullivan could be exposing Senate staff to COVID-19 by not wearing a mask. What appears to be Sullivan’s mask is on the desk in front of him.
Scientists, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, say masks are key to preventing the spread of COVID-19, which is spreading at record levels in the U.S. now.
The Brown request prompted Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz to call the Ohioan an “ass.”
“This is idiotic,” Cruz tweeted. “Sherrod Brown is being a complete ass. He wears a mask to speak – when nobody is remotely near him – as an ostentatious sign of fake virtue. Sullivan was over 50 feet away, presiding. Last I checked 50 feet is more than 6 feet.”
Brown’s tweet of his exchange has generated more than 67,000 likes and 18,000 retweets as of Tuesday morning.
Here is the full exchange:
Brown: “I’d start by asking the presiding officer to please wear a mask as he speaks, and people below him are. ... I can’t tell you what to do but I know that the behavior. ... ”
Sullivan: “I don’t wear a mask when I’m speaking, like most senators. I don’t need your instruction.”
Brown: “I know you don’t need my instruction, but there clearly isn’t much interest in this body in public health.
“We have a president who hasn’t show up at the coronavirus task force meeting in months.
“We have a majority leader (Sen. Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY.) that calls us back here to vote on an unqualified nominee and at the same time to vote for judge after judge after judge, exposing all the people who can’t say anything (gestures toward staffers). ...
“The majority leader just doesn’t seem to care.”