Nunes Complains Schools Closing In Response To Coronavirus Outbreak Is ‘Way Overkill’

Ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Devin Nunes speaks during a hearing before the House Intelligence Committee on November 19, 2019. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin - Pool/Getty Images)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Brought to you by the congressman who argued it’s a “great time to just go out and go to a local restaurant” during the COVID-19 outbreak.

“The schools were just canceled out here in California, which is way overkill,” Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) said during an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “It’s possible kids could’ve went back to school in two weeks to four weeks but they just canceled the rest of the schools.”

Saying he was “optimistic” about efforts to combat the coronavirus outbreak, the GOP lawmaker indicated that he disagreed with President Donald Trump’s decision to extend social distancing guidelines to April 30.

“I don’t believe we can wait until the end of April,” Nunes told Ingraham. “I just don’t know of any economy that’s ever survived where you unplug the entire economy and expect things to go back and be normal.”

The Republican’s flippant attitude about the pandemic landed him in hot water several weeks ago after he suggested people spend time in pubs and restaurants despite public health officials’ warnings that doing so would exacerbate the devastating outbreak.

Nunes defended his remarks several days later, saying that “these media freaks don’t have a clue what’s going on out in the real world.”

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Dickhead.

    Hope someone contagious coughs on him. A lot.

  2. Sounds like this wack a doodle needs to give the virus a good talking to and tell it to hurry up. We can’t wait!

  3. We need fearless leaders like himself. In fact, he should take this fearlessness into a South Cali ER room and volunteer. Show all those ER docs and nurses what a complete nothingburger this is. I bet he’d have this licked by Friday.

  4. “Overkill?” Did he really use that word?? Did he really say that?? Idiot.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

214 more replies

Participants

Avatar for paulw Avatar for daveminnj Avatar for steviedee111 Avatar for rollinnolan Avatar for poorcitizen Avatar for murgatroid Avatar for danny Avatar for lastroth Avatar for greylady Avatar for schmed Avatar for pshah Avatar for tena Avatar for jonney_5 Avatar for tsp Avatar for susanintheoc Avatar for castor_troy Avatar for dannydorko Avatar for raph Avatar for msc00 Avatar for capeksghost Avatar for redpill Avatar for yellowbeard Avatar for Volvo_Birkenstock Avatar for TrainWreck

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: