Ted Cruz Tells Off Reporter Pestering Him to Wear a Mask During News Conference
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz gave an object lesson in what happens when somebody tries to tell a Texas Republican what to do.
During a Wednesday news conference in Washington, Cruz was asked by a reporter, “Would you mind putting on a mask for us?”
“Yeah, when I’m talking to the TV camera, I’m not going to wear a mask. All of us have been immunized,” the senator said, pointing to his colleagues standing nearby.
“It’d make us feel better,” the reporter said.
Cruz then showed his commitment to the doctrine of free will.
“You’re welcome to step away if you’d like,” he said.
“The whole point of the vaccine — CDC guidance is what we’re following,” Cruz said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website has this to say about vaccinated people wearing masks:
“For now, fully vaccinated people can gather indoors without physical distancing or wearing masks with: Other people who are fully vaccinated; Unvaccinated people from one other household, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
“Until more is known, fully vaccinated people should continue to wear masks and stay 6 feet apart from other people in other settings, like when they are in public or visiting with unvaccinated people from multiple households.”
Reaction to the incident went along ideological fault lines.
MSNBC criticized Cruz in a piece headlined “Cruz ignores CDC guidelines talking to press without a mask.”
Britain’s The Independent noted that because the senator was speaking in a federal building, he was technically violating President Joe Biden’s order demanding that masks be worn by everyone in federal buildings and facilities.
Others said the incident was nothing more than a sane man responding to liberal nonsense.
This is exactly how to respond to a performative virtue signaling reporter pretending to be scared of a vaccinated politician https://t.co/rJ0L5gpFOi
— Cabot Phillips (@cabot_phillips) March 25, 2021
“It would make us feel better” = muh feelings matter more than science https://t.co/EA6TN3JBWB
— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) March 25, 2021
Cruz, who offered his own verdict on the incident, has previously mocked rules that call for mask-wearing after immunization.
Lefty reporters have lost their minds. #commonsense https://t.co/5yhOTutDHx
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 25, 2021
“Now they’re saying, everybody can get immunized, we can have herd immunity everywhere, and we’re going to wear masks for the next 300 years,” Cruz said during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “And by the way, not just one mask — two, three, four. You can’t have too many masks.
“How much virtue do you want to signal? This is just dumb.”
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