Rachel Maddow Explains To Hysterical Republicans That Biden's COVID Plan Is Legal

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Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 01:39 pm

Rachel Maddow showed Republicans that President Biden does have the legal authority to enact his COVID policy because presidents have done this for hundreds of years.

Video:

Rachel #maddow explains to the hysterical right that President Biden does have the authority to carry out his COVID plan, and presidents have had such authority for hundreds of years. pic.twitter.com/Fl2i7sYnTI

— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) September 10, 2021

Maddow said:

Today President Biden announced a muscular new approach by the federal government to contend with the delta variant of the coronavirus, to try to finally wrench this pandemic to the ground and defeat it. The immediate chorus from Republican governors and members of Congress and right-wing commentators all over the country was, he can’t do that. He can’t tell private entities what to do.

Really?

Why does your car have a seat belt? Maybe the company that made your car, that private entity, didn’t want to put in seat belts. But nevertheless, your car has a seat belt. Why is that? Why is the ground beef you bought for dinner tonight government inspected? Meat producers do, in the private sector, have every incentive to only produce meat that people like and doesn’t make anybody sick, right? We don’t need the government sticking its nose in and telling you that’s actually cow you’re eating and not roadkill. Why is there government inspection of that privately produced product?

….

And the reaction on the right today and tonight and in much of the beltway press is, oh, presidents can’t do stuff like this — that is a born yesterday canard. President Johnson, Nixon, Roosevelt, who was it who signed the Lincoln railway coupling ban? President Harrison — would like to have a word with anybody screaming today that President Biden doesn’t lead a federal government with these types of authorities. These are absolutely the authorities of the federal government.

Biden Has Centuries Of Precedent On His Side

If Republican governors sue Biden on this issue, they will lose and lose badly. The President Of The United States has the legal authority to do exactly what Joe Biden did.

Biden deserves credit for understanding that the real source of the COVID surge is Republican politicians. The Republican elected officials who refuse to protect their own citizens are fueling this surge of COVID among the unvaccinated, and Joe Biden is coming after them with the full force of the federal government.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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