Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy took to the House floor on Wednesday to slam Democratic New York Rep. Jerry Nadler over his comments on masking children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nadler had spoken up earlier in the day to defend pandemic policies like vaccine mandates and masking requirements for young children. While speaking Nadler said parents who failed to mask their two-year-old children before vaccines became available were guilty of “child abuse.” He also argued that the vaccines prevented transmission virus, a claim that has been widely debunked.
Nadler: “When we have a pandemic like covid, two-year-olds should have been required to wear masks. It would be child abuse for parents not to do that.” pic.twitter.com/8dcF9MJhDC
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 14, 2023
In response, Roy took the floor and said Nadler was “basically making the case for me more effectively than I can” against the “tyrannical state of the executive branch.” Roy characterized Nadler, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, as arguing that “the power of the government, the full power of the federal government should be a part of ensuring and forcing your children, your two-year-old child, to be masked.”
Roy also claimed that the Democratic Party is “fully comfortable with the power of the government being used to shut down your business, force you out of work unless you take an experimental vaccine that has not been proven to actually do what the gentleman [Nadler] just said.”