Apparently, Ted Cruz Only Cares About The Health Of Other Senators

Ted Cruz has never been particularly truthful about health care, considering his incessant lying around abortion and women's rights, but he’s shown a whole other side to him during the COVID-19 pandemic, and is now being called out for his bad coronavirus takes and standing against wearing masks.

After a video of an exchange between two senators arguing over wearing masks quickly went viral on Monday night, Cruz decided to enter the chat. It all happened when Sen. Sherrod Brown asked Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, who was presiding over the Senate, if he would wear a mask when he speaks.

Although Brown began to say that he understands he can’t tell Sullivan what to do, Sullivan cut him off to say he didn’t need Brown’s instruction. Then, Brown swiftly responded, “I know you don’t need my instruction, but there clearly isn’t much interest in this body in public. We have a president who hasn’t shown up at the coronavirus tasks force meetings in months. We have a majority leader who calls us back here to vote on an unqualified nominee.” 

Later, when Brown shared the video on Twitter, he publicly addressed the general GOP attitude towards masks. “Once again, I asked my Republican colleagues to stop endangering all the Senate workers – and simply wear a mask when presiding over the Senate. Once again, they refused,” he said. While fellow Democrats tweeted their support for his comments, Brown received heavy criticism from Cruz — to perhaps no one's surprise. 

"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,” Cruz tweeted, along with the video of their exchange.  

Although Sullivan may have been 50 feet away from Brown, many were quick to point out that other staffers and aides in the room were within a few feet — and even inches — from the maskless senator, though Cruz doesn't seem to consider them "people" by all accounts.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Cruz has been critical of COVID-19 safety precautions. He was called out by American Airlines for not wearing a mask on a flight this summer, and during the election, he even insinuated that television networks like CNN were only covering the pandemic to make Trump look bad.

This all comes as the U.S. set a terrifying record last week, with approximately 184,000 reported cases in one day last Friday. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also recently updated their guidance on masks, explicitly stating that they protect against transmission to others as well as provide protection to the person wearing the mask. 

At this point, a handful of members of Congress have already tested positive for the coronavirus — the majority being Republicans. And while Sen. Brown is clearly making important public safety arguments, Cruz is committed to turning arguments about protective measures into a culture war.

If Cruz and other Republicans want to write off people wearing masks as nothing more than virtue signaling, they can do that. But we're also free to take their refusal to wear masks as signaling that they simply don't care about anyone's health and safety but their own. That much remains to be proven otherwise.