Sen. Ted Cruz blasted Sen. Sherrod Brown as an “ass” after the Ohio Democrat took issue with Sen. Dan Sullivan’s decision not to wear a mask while presiding over Senate business.
“This is idiotic,” Cruz tweeted Monday. “@SherrodBrown is being a complete ass. He wears a mask to speak — when nobody is remotely near him — as an ostentatious sign of fake virtue. @DanSullivan_AK was over 50 feet away, presiding. Last I checked 50 feet is more than 6 feet.”
This is idiotic. @SherrodBrown is being a complete ass. He wears a mask to speak—when nobody is remotely near him—as an ostentatious sign of fake virtue.@DanSullivan_AK was over 50 feet away, presiding. Last I checked 50 feet is more than 6 feet. https://t.co/BoIGrAV7T1
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 17, 2020
“I’d start by asking the presiding officer to please wear a mask as he speaks,” Brown said before addressing the Senate, at which point he was cut off by the senator from Alaska, who told him, “I don’t wear a mask when I’m speaking, like most senators. I don’t need your instruction.”
The use of face masks and the government’s role in mandating their use in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus has become a politically contentious issue over the past several months. This includes controversy over recent comments made by President-elect Joe Biden when he suggested that he would push governors nationwide to embrace mask mandates.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization both recommend wearing masks to slow the spread of the virus.
Some prominent Republicans, including Sen. Rand Paul and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, have pushed back against face mask mandates, citing questions in the scientific community about the effectiveness of wearing them.
