Sens. Ben Sasse (R-NE) and Raphael Warnock (D-GA) were the only senators from their respective parties to vote against ending President Joe Biden’s pandemic emergency on Tuesday night when the Senate voted 62 to 36 in favor of doing so. The emergency declaration, originally set to expire on December 31, was extended last month by the Biden administration’s HHS until at least January 11.
Less than a month after declaring “the pandemic is finished” on “60 Minutes,” the president extended the deadline.
In the Senate, every Republican except for Ben Sasse voted to end the emergency, and 12 Democrats joined them, as did Independent Senator Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats.
Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-KS), who introduced the resolution, made a direct reference to the president’s comments in his floor speech. However, as the senator pointed out in his remarks, hypocrisy isn’t the only problem.
“By declaring a state of emergency, the government has been able to justify its ongoing lockdown of businesses and schools, as well as its mask and vaccination restrictions, the latter of which has led to the departure of more than 8,000 active-duty troops. That’s why it’s okay for President Biden and the Democrats in Congress to embark on a spending spree that has pushed the national debt to over $9 trillion since February 2021 and stoked the fire of historical inflation. That the president has used to justify delaying repayment on federal student loans and writing off up to $10,000 in debt for some borrowers, and even more for Pell Grant recipients “Marked by Marshall as Important.
He went on to say that Congress “must take the responsible measure of reining in this huge expansion of government and restoring Americans’ fundamental liberties by repealing the COVID-19 national emergency designation.”
Not everyone in the White House reacted negatively; in fact, some of the responses were downright comical. State Senator Nina Turner (D-OH) took to Twitter to address the senators after her repeated failed bids for federal office. What she intends to do after tweeting “we see you” to them is unclear.
Importantly, it was later determined that a mistake in the original records led to the appearance that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had voted in favor.
To add to the hysteria, MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan expressed his displeasure at the news that Marshall had introduced the resolution by using the frowning face emoji. The senator fired back with a dissing emoji of his own.