More than a dozen of Donald Trump’s closest allies in the House skipped votes on Friday after signing a letter claiming they are unable to do so “due to the ongoing public health emergency.” But, in reality, they were all present at CPAC.
According to CNN, “the members include Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who addressed the conference on Friday, as well as others who were listed as scheduled speakers — such as Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona, Jim Banks of Indiana, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Ted Budd of North Carolina, Mark Green of Tennessee, Darrell Issa of California, Ronny Jackson of Texas, Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Devin Nunes of California and Greg Steube of Florida.
On Friday, the House is expected to vote on the massive $1.9 trillion COVID relief package.
A spokesperson for Rep. Issa told CNN that he “complied with all House voting rules in lodging his opposition to what the Democrats labeled as Covid relief, but that devoted more than 90 percent of its total to non-Covid spending.”
As CNN noted the move is surprising for Republicans who are strong advocates against voting by proxy especially during the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, Rep. Cawthorne who is a member of the group that skipped Friday’s vote to attend CPAC tweeted last summer, “Leaders show up no matter how uncertain the times are. The Democrats are cowards for not showing up to work.”
Democrats are calling out the Republicans for being hypocrites.
“Apparently hypocrisy has become a tenant of the Republican Party,” House Rules Chairman Jim McGovern said. “Let me get this straight: these Members can’t vote in person because of the pandemic, but they manage to attend CPAC? They were even maskless at this super spreader event. It’s outrageous!”
