Failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney was the sole Republican to vote against repealing President Joe Biden’s year-long transportation mask mandate.
The bill passed Senate on Tuesday 57-40 and saw bipartisan support, with eight Democrats voting against the party line and voting with the GOP.
Romney was the sole member of his party to vote against the bill.
Mitt Romney is the only Senate HELP Committee Republican to join Democrats in voting to allow federal mask mandates for toddlers. See 1:24. pic.twitter.com/tm7eEUtuDY
— Rachel Bovard (@rachelbovard) March 15, 2022
Romney has been a vocal opponent of freedom from COVID restrictions and mandates, being especially strict on health guidances and specifically giving high praise to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC).
According to Fox News, the vote came after the Biden Administration announced last week that they would be extending the mask mandate.
“Biden was quick to lay his hand on his holstered veto gun, threatening to shoot the bill out of the sky,” Fox News wrote in their article.
According to Ali Zaslav, “A GOP aide in Romney’s office says he voted against Sen. Rand Paul’s measure to repeal travel mask mandates because, as he has been vocal about in the past, he believes it’s important for public health officials to make these types of decisions, not politicians.”
Romney’s stand has not proven popular among conservative circles. The Washington Examiner’s Zachary Faria wrote in a comentary that Romney may has forgotten his job.
“Romney and other legislators are supposed to weigh the guidance given by “experts” along with other factors in their decision-making, such as non-disease-related externalities of COVID restrictions. The same public health officials to whom Romney is deferring here have said that women should never drink alcohol if they aren’t on birth control and that no one should ever eat cookie dough. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would still have children masked in schools, regardless of vaccination status — a recommendation that most school districts fortunately ignore at this point,” he wrote.
“Public health guidance is not gospel.”
