August 8, 2021 ☼ gop ☼ lies ☼ border ☼ migration ☼ pandemic
Source: POLITICO - Link
Even as many Republicans rail against mask mandates and spread skepticism about vaccines, GOP leaders have settled on one place where they take the spread of Covid very seriously — the border.
The pivot occurred quickly. This week, one Republican leader after another rushed to blame the spread of the virus, not on the unvaccinated but on immigrants.
Former President Donald Trump put out a statement linking to a New York Post article claiming that “nearly 7,000 immigrants who tested positive for COVID-19 have passed through a Texas city that has become the epicenter of the illegal immigration surge.” (Actually, migrants who test positive are quarantined. Videos of migrants roaming free and being dropped off at bus stations turned out to be immigrants who had tested negative and were on their way out of the country.)
This makes no sense. The rise in COVID caused by immigration is a blip, likely measurable, but just a blip.