Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) confronted Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) Tuesday for saying that 2-year-olds should have been forced to wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a debate over an amendment to the REINS Act proposed by Roy, Nadler took to the podium to voice his support for keeping vaccine mandates easy to enact for the sake of public health. During his remarks, Nadler specifically mentioned the health impact on children, asserting that mandates for masks were especially vital for them.
“When we have a pandemic, like the COVID-19 pandemic that we had, 2-year-olds should have been required to wear masks,” Nadler said. “It would be child abuse for parents not to do that because there was no vaccination available for 2-year-olds.”
Roy took the floor immediately after and called Nadler out for “basically making the case for (him)” and proving Roy’s own argument “to protect the American people from the tyrannical state of the executive branch.”
“I want everybody in America to understand what they just heard from the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee in the United States House of Representatives,” Roy said. “Your 2-year-old should be forced to be masked. That is what the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee just said here on the floor of the House of Representatives – that the power of the government, the full power of the federal government, should be a part of ensuring and forcing your children — your 2-year-old child — to be masked.”
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Roy went on to make the argument for his amendment, asserting that it would be a necessary check on the federal government to prevent them from abusing power in the form of mask and vaccine mandates.
“To say that this politicized vaccine should have been used to shut down the economy and to kill the ability of my constituents to be able to go about their lives and to force children into the corner wearing masks to get set back years in their education, that is precisely why this amendment matters,” Roy said. “It is precisely why we’re here reining in the federal government and it is precisely why this amendment would make this a better piece of legislation.”
The amendment ultimately passed, with all but five Republicans voting in favor. The amendment expands the definition of “major rule” in the REINS Act so that Congress would have to approve any sort of rule concerning mandatory vaccinations from the executive branch, according to Fox News.
For the back and forth between Nadler and Roy, watch below:
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Sen. @HawleyMO: So you think it's fine to say to religious people that they are prohibited from gathering, outside, wearing a mask, socially-distanced, they can't do it? But if you wanna come and protest to defund the police with thousands of people that's okay? pic.twitter.com/axABfQujBp
— MRCTV (@mrctv) June 12, 2023