Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) has tested positive for COVID-19, days after chairing a committee hearing attended by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) who announced a positive test for coronavirus earlier this week.
“While I cannot blame anyone directly for this, this week has shown that there are some Members of Congress who fail to take this crisis seriously,” he said in a statement that he posted to his Twitter account on Saturday afternoon. “Stopping the spread of a deadly virus should not be a partisan issue,” he added.
I have tested positive for COVID-19.
As a result, I will be self-isolating in quarantine. I currently have no symptoms, feel fine, and hope to make a quick & speedy recovery.
COVID-19 is not a joke & we should all take this seriously.
My full statement: pic.twitter.com/nnBskdSyTF
— Raul M. Grijalva (@RepRaulGrijalva) August 1, 2020
Grijalva said that he currently has no symptoms and is self-isolating at the recommendation of an attending physician.
The Arizona congressman chairs the House Natural Resources Committee which held a meeting Tuesday that Gohmert also attended. Gohmert reported a positive test for COVID-19 the following day, although it was not immediately clear whether Gohmert had infected Grijalva or others.
Gohmert has routinely refused to wear a mask also attended a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told CNN Wednesday that while the House isn’t mandating testing for lawmakers yet, “we’re discussing that.”
Since Gohmert’s announcement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) ordered a broad mask mandate for House members that was scheduled to go into effect Thursday. It included a requirement for members and staff to wear masks in the House chamber in addition to House office buildings with few exceptions.
Socially-distanced Congresscritters can’t hold hearings without spreading it.
But you average workers and kids out there need to get back to your damned jobs and school and quit whining about it.
Trump is not the only idiot in town.
Gohmert, later today: “I must have loaned Representative Grijalva my mask, from which he clearly caught the covids.”
In“House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told CNN Wednesday that while the House isn’t mandating testing for lawmakers yet, “we’re discussing that.”
Just mandate masks and frequent testing. GOP heads will explode of course.
Raul is a great guy. He represents the district just barely south of where I live in Tucson. He will not put this infection at Louie Gohmert’s feet BUT I WILL. It was Ol Louie who flouted the idea of masks and got the bug. Now he has put Raul’s health at risk. An not just his but his aides and their families and his own family.
GODDAMMIT LOUIE!!!
Fucker. You goddamned idiot you put the health of others at risk because of your stupidity.
How’dya feel now fuckwad?
edit
Yeah, I am angry about this. This is a prime example of an idiot (Louie Gohmert) thinking trump is god and assuming the virus is no big deal cuz trump said so without any decent reason. And so he parades around the capitol leading tours of unmasked people while is himself is unmasked and spewing virus with every breath he exhales.
Goddamned willful and deliberate stupidity is what Louie is about and it pisses me off!!!
edit to add…
When I taught first year medical students I ran into some who thought they knew everything already. Willful young folk assuming they were experienced enough. I called it willful and deliberate stupidity and I developed a strong dislike of that sort of arrogance over the 40+ year I taught. Now there is a prime example, as I said earlier in this post, of deliberate and willful stupidity. Louie could have swallowed his pride and worn a mask and likely avoided infecting himself and others. But he had to show his arrogance to everyone.
If ever there was a reason for a member of Congress to apologize to another member, his family, his exposed aides and their families and anyone they came into contact with … personally and with humility it is now