Tag: Louie Gohmert

Lawmakers Are ‘Pissed’ at Gohmert After COVID Diagnosis

Congress has done relatively little to prevent the spread of the virus in its own confines. Does that change now that a virus-skeptic has contracted it?

As word spread on Wednesday that another lawmaker had contracted COVID-19, initial concern for his well-being was quickly overwhelmed with a tide of anger and frustration. Because it wasn’t just any lawmaker who contracted the disease. It was Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX).

The conservative firebrand has steadfastly refused to wear a face mask while conducting his Capitol Hill business—including while greeting Attorney General William Barr before testimony in the Judiciary Committee just this Tuesday. Gohmert even took pains to force his COVID denialism on his aides, with one staffer suggesting to Politico that those in the office were berated for wearing masks and revealing that Gohmert forced his entire staff to work in his D.C. office as an example of how to safely reopen.

Gohmert’s colleagues—on both sides of the aisle—were aghast at the turn of events and spared nothing in their condemnations of his carelessness. One GOP aide described the mood on the Hill as “pissed.” Continue reading.

A GOP staffer just sent a damning note about a Republican lawmaker who tested positive for coronavirus

AlterNet logoTexas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert, one of the most obnoxious and ignorant members of Congress, tested positive for the coronavirus Wednesday after being repeatedly seen not wearing a mask in contact with others.

And a report from Politico’s Jake Sherman shortly after the news was revealed gave a damning glimpse into the congressman’s reckless and cruel treatment of his own staff. In the newsletter Playbook, Sherman revealed he received the following note after reporting Gohmert had the virus from a member of the lawmaker’s staff:

Jake, thank you for letting our office know Louie tested positive for the Coronavirus. When you write your story, can you include the fact that Louie requires full staff to be in the office, including three interns, so that ‘we could be an example to America on how to open up safely.’ When probing the office, you might want to ask how often were people berated for wearing masks.

It’s a searing indictment of the way the lax Republican attitude toward the virus has endangered their own people. Continue reading.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, who had been scheduled to travel with Trump, tests positive for coronavirus

Washington Post logoRep. Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican who has frequently walked around the Capitol without wearing a face mask or maintaining social distance from others, said Wednesday that he has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Gohmert had been scheduled to travel with President Trump aboard Air Force One to Texas on Wednesday but tested positive at the White House and did not join the trip.

In a video that he appeared to have filmed from his Capitol Hill office after his diagnosis, Gohmert said he was tested twice at the White House and that both tests came back positive. Continue reading.

Fact checker busts GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert for hyping nonexistent ‘magic powder’ that purportedly kills COVID-19 instantly

AlterNet logoA professional fact checker recently brought the hammer down on Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) for promoting a nonexistent “mist” that he claims is capable of instantly killing COVID-19.

In a fact-check piece published in the Houston Chronicle, PolitiFact’s Madlin Mekelburg picks apart Gohmert for hyping up a miracle treatment for COVID-19 that he falsely claimed was being used to protect health care workers in Germany.

“It is being used in Germany as a mist,” Gohmert said in an interview with a local Texas news station earlier this month. “Health care workers go through a misting tent going into the hospital and it kills the coronavirus completely dead not only right then, but any time in the next 14 days that the virus touches anything that’s been sprayed it is killed.” Continue reading. Continue reading.

Rep. Louie Gohmert falsely says George Soros helped take property from fellow Jews

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) is coming under criticism for falsely claiming in an interview that billionaire philanthropist George Soros, known for his funding of liberal and pro-democracy groups, “helped take the property” owned by fellow Jews.

Patrick Gaspard, president of Soros’s Open Society Foundations, sent a letter to Gohmert on Thursday afternoon asking him to apologize for the “disturbing and false anti-Semitic slur.”

In an interview Thursday morning with Fox Business Network’s Stuart Varney, Gohmert spoke about Google’s plans to build a censored search engine in China. At one point in the interview, Gohmert pivoted from discussing the tech giant to making accusations against Soros, who is frequently the subject of conspiracy theories and in October was among the prominent critics of President Trump to whom a Florida man allegedly mailed pipe bombs.

View the complete December 6 article by Felicia Sonmez on The Washington Post website here.