Blog Rep. Jordan Asks Fauci if He Thinks ‘the Constitution Is Suspended’: ‘Are We Just Going to Continue This Forever?’ By Craig Bannister | April 15, 2021 | 4:31pm EDT
Rep. Jim Jordan
(Getty Images/Mandell Ngan)
“I don’t look at this as a liberty thing,” President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said Thursday when Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) asked when Americans will be given the liberties they lost to the government because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Are we just going to continue this forever?” Jordan asked Fauci at a House hearing on the pandemic, calling on the doctor to provide a standard that will determine when the public will be freed from the restrictions on their liberties.
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“They’re trying to attack the messenger, who has been warning them, while they’ve been lying through their teeth to the American people, who has been warning that a lot of people could die,” he continued. “And a year ago, they kept saying, Open things up, Everything’s fine, What is this? No worse than the flu. No worse over 550,000 people are dead. And the lies continue. The scapegoating still continues.”
The former GOP lawmaker from Florida also pushed back against Jordan s assertion that the American people had their civil liberties revoked as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
A pair of pro-police GOP bills in Missouri draw scrutiny from free speech advocates Marquise Francis
Republican lawmakers in Missouri are looking to pass two bills this month that they say better protect both residents and law enforcement officers from “violent protesters.”
But critics say the measures will curtail the free speech rights of protesters, and effectively act as retaliation against demonstrators following the racial unrest surrounding the police killings of Black Americans such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
Missouri state Senate bills S.B. 26 and S.B. 66 aim to expand penalties for protesters obstructing traffic or vandalizing monuments and make it harder to cut police budgets, among other things. But progressive activists say that instead of quelling protests, these bills will only rile up more people.
During multiple rounds of questioning at a House Oversight coronavirus subcommittee hearing Thursday, Jordan pressed Fauci on the idea of herd immunity, and when Americans can expect to go back to normal.
“When do Americans get their freedom back?” Jordan asked. We had 15 days to slow the spread, turned into a year of lost liberties.
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Fauci tried to explain that the best course of action is to gradually lift restrictions and return to normality “when we get the level of infection in this country low enough.”
Jordan interrupted, pressing Fauci to give me a number.
“You’re indicating liberty and freedom. I look at it as a public health measure to prevent people from dying and going to hospital,” Fauci said, adding that life will return to normal when people get vaccinated.
Rep. Jordan, Fauci have heated exchange over COVID-19 restrictions
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Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, questions Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation s top infectious disease expert, during a hearing of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., on Thursday. Pool photo by Susan Walsh/UPI | License Photo
Infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks on the COVID-19 pandemic. Pool photo by Amr Alfiky/UPI | License Photo
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., speaks at the hearing. Pool photo by Susan Walsh/UPI | License Photo
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation s top infectious disease expert (R) talks with House Democratic Whip James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., and chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. Pool photo by Susan Walsh/UPI | License Photo