The wingnuts have a right to know:
Conservatives have been desperately trying to find out if they interacted with the CPAC attendee who later tested positive for COVID-19.
Revelations that a man infected with the novel coronavirus hobnobbed with top Republicans at the annual Conservative Public Action Conference last month has prompted a wave of fright among Republican operatives who attended the conference and fear they may have been exposed, too. And as the fear has mounted so too have complaints that the conference’s planners have been too secretive about the man’s identity.
“If you’re not rich and important, you don’t get to know if you were exposed to someone with Coronavirus at CPAC,” Breitbart reporter Brandon Darby tweeted Monday.
The American Conservative Union, which organizes the annual event in National Harbor, Maryland, announced Saturday afternoon that a man who was infected with the coronavirus attended CPAC. Since then, four prominent Republicans—Sen. Ted Cruz (TX), Rep. Paul Gosar (AZ), Rep. Doug Collins (GA), and Rep. Matt Gaetz (FL)—have announced that they’re self-quarantining after interacting with the man.
Gaetz has undergone a test for the virus. In contrast, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), who also had contact with the infected man, said he won’t self-quarantine.
Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX) was told he was in proximity of individual at CPAC who tested positive for coronavirus, according to a Gohmert aide.
Gohmert is choosing not to self-quarantine.CPAC chief Matt Schlapp was also quarantining himself after shaking the man’s hand. Schlapp later shook hands with President Donald Trump at the event. Collins also shook hands with Trump at an event over the weekend and Gaetz rode with Trump on Air Force One on Monday, raising the prospect that the president may have had secondhand exposure to the potentially fatal virus that’s spreading across the world and shaking the global economy.
While top lawmakers apparently knew the man’s identity, other CPAC attendees were frustrated with the lack of information about the person, whose name hasn’t been released to protect his privacy. Former Breitbart reporter Lee Stranahan, who now co-hosts a radio show on Russian-owned broadcaster Sputnik, said he’s been irritated by the lack of contact from CPAC officials about the potential coronavirus exposure.
They are upset and I don’t blame them, actually. Here’s one attendee doing his own detective work:
I now know that Rep. Gosar met the person and within the next hour I was shaking Gosar’s hand across the street.
GREAT.
(I’ve been down with the “flu” for the past week).
Here are some of the other people who may have been in the green room on Thursday afternoon at the same time as the CPAC #coronavirus infectee:
– Rep Louie Gohmert;
– Ronna McDaniel
– Michael Knowles
– Kay James
– KellyAnne Conway
– Betsy Devos
– Rep Matt Gaetz
– Diamond/Silk
The GOP is protecting the organization. Of course. This is how they work.
Top Republicans have avoided criticizing CPAC’s organizers, with the lawmakers who attended only announcing their plans to self-quarantine. But if a Democratic convention had had a similar incident, Stranahan said, many of the conservatives who attended CPAC would be quick to mock their political rivals.
“Everybody would be like ‘Look how irresponsible they are,’” he said.
Indeed they would be. I can’t even imagine the collective right-wing primal scream if the shoe were on the other foot during a crisis like this. Of course, if the Democrats were in charge they would likely have handled this a lot better from the beginning since they believe in government and would not have starved the executive branch of expertise. They aren’t perfect, but they are better than this clown show.
Meanwhile, the virus has now touched the top echelon of the GOP, including the famously germaphobic president.
They say he hasn’t been tested.
Bullshit.