Day 730 to Slow the Spread: Romney Votes for Masks

CLAY: Buck, does it surprise you that Mitt Romney was the only Republican to vote in favor, in some ways, of maintaining the mask mandate?

BUCK: No, because ever since I saw him marching with BLM and — we should pull that audio. He’s like, (impression) “Well, I’m here because, you know, I want to make it clear that black lives matter.”

I was like, this guy is such — I guess maybe he was so beaten down by, let’s be honest, getting his butt kicked by Obama in 2012 that he’s just desperate for the approval of elites now. You know, he wants the New York Times to think well of him. That was pathetic.

Black Lives Matter. pic.twitter.com/JpXUFlxH2J

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) June 7, 2020

But this was even more annoying because his justification, Clay —

CLAY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

BUCK: His justification is that the “experts” should make these decisions. No. I want to flip over tables and scream profanity when he says this. The Senate should be making the determination about this based on if they want the advice of people like the CDC. The CDC is not some super legislature.

CLAY: No doubt. And also they’re not held accountable by voters, which is why we’re saying November has to be an onslaught. By the way, it is also the two-year anniversary of “15 days to slow the spread.” If you remember that press conference, it has now been I believe 730 days since “15 days to slow the spread.”

We’re still fighting a lot of those battles.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

BUCK: There was a vote, Clay, a vote here where eight Senate Democrats came along with the Republicans and or voted, I should say, to get rid of masks on planes, and the only Republican who voted against this was Mitt Romney, who loves to walk around — this is a guy who is just in love with himself.

I mean, this is somebody whether it’s marching with BLM because if there’s somebody who cares about the violence against minorities in America, particularly, you know, in cities that have high crime rates, Mitt Romney, he really knows what he’s talking about. That was ridiculous.

But this actual this actually makes me angry because his rationale for you — what’s the rationale that he officially said, that have to let the experts decide, right?

CLAY: Yeah, his rationale is — and I’ll read directly the quote. Mitt Romney just gave this quote. Why was he the only Republican to vote against overturning travel mask mandates? He said — and I’m reading — this is from Manu Raju, who covers the Capitol: “I just think it’s a mistake for police stations and Congress to substitute our judgment on health matters for the people at the CDC. So even when I agree with something, I just think we should leave those things to people who are health professionals as opposed to Congress. I know the CDC has lost a lot of credibility, but they’ve still got a lot more credibility than Congress.”

Asked Romney why he was the lone R to vote against overturning travel mask mandate. “I just think it’s a mistake for politicians and Congress to substitute our judgment on health matters for the people at the CDC,” Romney said.

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 16, 2022

So this is infuriating. And, first of all, we should point out like you did, there are eight different guys who decided to in the Senate who are Democrats in favor of this. The vote was 57 to 40 in favor of approving to overturn the travel mask mandate.

Not surprisingly, Buck, a bunch of Democrats who were up for reelection suddenly are seeing the light on the stupidity of mask mandates. Bennett’s up for reelection in Colorado. He voted “yes.” Cortez Masto up for reelection in Nevada, “yes.” Hassan up for reelection in New Hampshire, “yes.” Kelly up for reelection in Arizona, “yes.” Then you got Manchin, Rosen, Sinema, and Tester.

So Romney voted “no” and said he wants to defer to the experts. I can understand voting “no” in March of 2020 when we were all still in the early grips of covid and you thought the experts might have knowledge that you didn’t. But my goodness. We can’t hold these experts accountable because they are not elected officials.

And so when they make poor decisions, when Fauci makes a poor decision, it’s almost impossible to get rid of him. We can hold our politicians accountable which is why they can’t just defer to experts particularly because experts have gotten so much wrong.

BUCK: Even Fauci, the vile, bureaucrat tyrant that he is who no doubt is lost somewhere in the couch cushions of an MSNBC green room. That’s why we haven’t seen him.

CLAY: They won’t even have him on now.

BUCK: Yeah, it’s probably true. He’s actually probably waiting outside, “Why won’t you bring me on?”

CLAY: Two years since “15 days to slow the spread” and Fauci can’t even get any airtime, Buck.

BUCK: It’s worth noting that Fauci was saying all along he would say things like when they would make these pronouncements he would have all these video conferences with the CDC, you know, “my colleagues and I,” it was always the collective. But really if you talk to anybody with any familiarity with the CDC, it was basically Fauci determining, Walensky seconding, and then, you know, everyone else in the room nodding their heads.

But they would never even — Fauci would never come out and say, “This was my call. I made this call. You are masking up your 4-year-old like an abusive moron by order of the state because of me, Anthony Fauci.” No. It was always “the science.” Remember, he represented the science.

CLAY: “I am the science” he said at one point. And so this is why — look. I understand people of Utah. I would be furious right now with Mitt Romney over this vote. And the fact that every other Republican and even eight Senators who are Democrats are willing to support it to me is a pretty strong evidence of how much support we’re gaining on a day-to-day basis for Team Reality.