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NO MASK: Senator Mike Lee recently tested positive for COVID-19. During Amy Barrett’s Senate hearing on Monday, he appeared without a mask. It has provoked reactions. Photo: Shawn Thew, AFP, NTB
Amy Barrett’s Senate hearing is underway. There, Senator Mike Lee, who tested positive for the coronavirus ten days ago, met without a mask.
For four days, Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett will go through a Senate hearing regarding her being President Donald Trump’s candidate for a new Supreme Court Justice.
Barrett arrived with his family on Monday for the first day of the Senate hearing, and the Justice Committee chaired by Trump ally Lindsay Graham is holding the hearing.
As a result of the coronavirus outbreak, there are fewer people in the audience than usual in such hearings. The audience wears face masks.
Test positive ten days ago
One of the things that has caused strong reactions after the first hours of the hearing is that Utah Senator Mike Lee, who tested positive for covid-19 ten days ago, appeared without a mask.
Lee is one of those infected by the corona outbreak that surrounded the president of the United States, Donald Trump. In connection with the celebration of Barrett’s nomination, Lee participated in a ceremony in Rosehagen at the White House. There, a video showed that he hugged several people, and shortly afterwards he tested positive for the virus. At least 15 people tested positive for the coronavirus after the ceremony.
The White House has not asked for help in tracking down the infection. VG has identified 143 of the participants, you can read it here: Infection in Rosehagen: this is how the virus spreads
American historian Michael Beschloss is among those asking his nearly 500,000 Twitter followers why Lee is speaking in the Senate today without a blindfold.
HUG: Mike Lee, a Republican senator from Utah, hugged several people on Saturday two weeks ago.
Refused to participate physically
Several Democrats announced before Monday’s hearing that they refused to physically participate. Among them was Senator Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, who, like several of her fellow party members, believes that the infection control measures against the coronavirus are a shame during the hearing. Instead, you will participate digitally from your office in the Senate.
During Harris’s speech, he was quick to criticize Graham for holding the hearing this week, following the many positive corona tests among senators in recent weeks.
– This committee has ignored all requests to keep people safe, including non-proof of all members present. This is despite a coronavirus outbreak among the committee’s senators.
Harris believes that the decision to hold the hearing now is ruthless and that it puts many who work in the Senate at risk.
The Senate, for its part, must have ensured that everything is in its most beautiful order. They have reported that more infection control measures have been implemented than are required by law.
Refused to try
But Democrats have demanded that everyone who will be present on the justice committee must be screened in advance. The committee’s Republican leader, Sen. Lindsay Graham, disagreed.
Before the hearing, he stated that he would follow national infection control councils and that it would not be necessary to test each person individually.
Graham also refused to test himself before a debate against his Democratic opponent Jaime Harrison, two days ago in South Carolina. Therefore, this was canceled at the last minute, because Harrison raised concerns about Graham’s meetings with other senators who have now tested positive for the coronavirus.
