House Representative Tim Ryan gave his Republican colleagues, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, quite the tongue-lashing this week and social media is kind of loving it.
A clip of Ryan condemning House GOP members who have used the new mask mandate on Capitol Hill as political fodder has been viewed more than 1 million times, and for good reason. In the video, Ryan can be seen dressing down McCarthy and his colleagues for their very public temper tantrums in response to a memo sent out by Capitol physician Brian Monahan. In the memo, Monahan stated that masks were mandatory for Congressional members holding closed meetings indoors now that the Delta variant has become so prevalent. McCarthy, who himself hails from a hotspot where COVID continues to spread unchecked, tweeted his faux outrage over the new mandate on Tuesday.
Make no mistake—The threat of bringing masks back is not a decision based on science, but a decision conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state.
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) July 28, 2021
He wasn’t the only Republican to use the doctor’s orders like some kind of political rallying cry for a conservative, vaccine-hesitant voting base, and when Ryan stepped up to the mic during a House meeting on Wednesday, he delivered a blistering rebuke of his colleagues, many of whom he said were “immature” and “juvenile.”
“Look, the attending physician of the United States Capitol, the top doctor for Congress, asks us to put on masks when we come to a chamber with 435 people,” Ryan said in his speech. “Just stop with this craziness. We’re trying to be safe, trying to protect our family members, our kids, our parents, close relatives, and the Minority leader mocks that. I just find it absolutely immature and appalling to somehow diminish it, try to score cheap political points. And that’s exactly what we saw a few minutes ago.”
Ryan shared the video on his timeline, doubling down on his comments, saying “Today, Minority Leader McCarthy gave a low rent and juvenile speech dragging us for wearing masks to keep our loved ones safe. You can always count on him to take the low road.”
Harsh, but accurate.