Vos Ridiculed Across the Nation
Not to mention the UK. Looking like Dr. Death he declares it "incredibly safe" to vote.
Robin Vos decked out in Personal Protective Equipment.
It was perhaps The Hill that first jumped on the story: Assembly Speaker Robin Vos looking like he was ready for the plague, “appearing in full protective gear, including a mask and gloves” and declaring “everybody is here safe” with “very minimal exposure.”
Soon it was a feeding frenzy, with CNN adding more details: “Vos, a Republican, wore a mask, gloves and other protective gear as he sought to assure voters it was ‘incredibly safe’ to vote in person for Tuesday’s election amid the coronavirus pandemic…’You are incredibly safe to go out, Vos told The Journal Times in a Facebook livestream…’Actually, there’s less exposure here than you would get if you went to the grocery store, or you went to Walmart, or you did any of the many things we have to do to live in the state of Wisconsin’… Vos’ message was strikingly disconnected from his PPE-heavy outfit, in which the speaker looked more like a surgeon than one of the state’s most powerful politicians.”
“Wisconsin Assembly Speaker sparks outrage for telling voters it’s ‘incredibly SAFE to go out’ and vote – while dressed head to toe in protective gear,” the Daily Mail declared.
The Daily Kos was in its usual full-umbrage mode: “When asked about what he would say to the hundreds of thousands of voters being disenfranchised by this undemocratic position, Speaker Vos—dressed in a full medical protective gear—said without irony: ‘You are incredibly safe to go out.’ Vos looks like he’s gearing up for surgery, or as an extra on ER.”
But the more dignified New York Times made it a lesser part of its story entitled “Voting in Wisconsin During a Pandemic”, while being sure to call him Mr. Vos: “Some Republican efforts to downplay the danger of the election ended up highlighting the medical risks involved… In photos, Mr. Vos looked ready to enter a contaminated zone: He was wearing a face mask, a plastic body covering and gloves.”
“The video of Mr Vos went viral on Twitter,” The Independent in London tersely reported, “with users like writer @ParkerMolloy joking that PPE is the kind of thing she always wears when it’s incredibly safe to go out. ‘Also, come on, man, if you need to be dressed like you’re heading in to perform heart surgery in order to hang out at a polling place, you should have postponed the election,’ he wrote.”
More than anything, Vos showed just how far within the Republican bubble he lives, with no sense of how absurd his insistence on holding an election during a life-threatening pandemic is. His wife, former Republican legislator Michelle Litjens Vos, seemed just as clueless, putting up a Facebook post with a picture of her polling place declaring “Super safe to vote in Rochester today!”
Yes, it was so safe that there was not one voter to be seen.
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More about the 2020 Spring Primary
- Why Don Natzke Couldn’t Vote - Enjoyiana Nururdin - Aug 9th, 2020
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report highlights public health measures taken by the Milwaukee Health and Fire Departments, Department of Administration, Election Commission, and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services - City of Milwaukee Health Department - Aug 4th, 2020
- CDC Says Election Did Not Cause COVID-19 Spike - Erik Gunn - Aug 4th, 2020
- Pandemic Reduced Black Vote, Study Finds - Dee J. Hall - Jun 25th, 2020
- Did April Election Hike COVID-19 Cases? - Alana Watson - May 20th, 2020
- Elections Commission Notes ‘Lessons Learned’ - Henry Redman - May 19th, 2020
- Wisconsin Elections News: WEC Releases Analysis of Absentee Voting in April 7 Spring Election - Wisconsin Elections Commission - May 18th, 2020
- Election’s Impact on County’s COVID-19 Cases Unclear - Jeramey Jannene - May 6th, 2020
- Why State’s Voting By Mail Was Chaotic - Daniel C. Vock - May 4th, 2020
- At Least 40 COVID-19 Cases Tied to Election in Milwaukee - Graham Kilmer - Apr 24th, 2020
Read more about 2020 Spring Primary here
More about the Coronavirus Pandemic
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- Milwaukee County Announces New Policies Related to COVID-19 Pandemic - County Executive David Crowley - May 9th, 2023
- DHS Details End of Emergency COVID-19 Response - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - Apr 26th, 2023
- Milwaukee Health Department Announces Upcoming Changes to COVID-19 Services - City of Milwaukee Health Department - Mar 17th, 2023
- Fitzgerald Applauds Passage of COVID-19 Origin Act - U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald - Mar 10th, 2023
- DHS Expands Free COVID-19 Testing Program - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - Feb 10th, 2023
- MKE County: COVID-19 Hospitalizations Rising - Graham Kilmer - Jan 16th, 2023
- Not Enough Getting Bivalent Booster Shots, State Health Officials Warn - Gaby Vinick - Dec 26th, 2022
- Nearly All Wisconsinites Age 6 Months and Older Now Eligible for Updated COVID-19 Vaccine - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - Dec 15th, 2022
Read more about Coronavirus Pandemic here
What ever happened to the Wisconsin GOP? The party of La Follette, Knowles and Dreyfus? What a shame.
@kmurphy724 – even Tommy Thompson looks compassionate compared to the current WI GOP.
I implore the GOP to ask Vos to step down from his position as Assembly Speaker. He has done enough damage across our state. Voters deserve better.
I voted just outside the City of Milwaukee yesterday. NOONE who came to vote had on a mask (except me of course) and the people who greeted me at the polls were not wearing masks or any other protective equipment. Some of the poll workers inside were wearing masks, but not all and none were in the full protective gear!!! The voting booths were not wiped down, and although they were behind a partial partition, they had to hand me a slip to sign my name and I handed it back – neither of us were wearing gloves….
Compare Vos’ gear to the Milwaukee poll workers. Milwaukee Poll workers (what I could see watching TV) had face masks and gloves. Vos had mask, gown, gloves and eye goggles that protected his eyes. Where did his polling place get all that gear? And why weren’t all Wisconsin Poll workers so covered?
Republicans are strong to use the word patriotism. Patriotism denotes a person who does what is best for the country. We saw Patriotism in spades in Milwaukee on Tuesday. Few Polling places (5), long lines spanning blocks if not miles, thousands of Milwaukeans standing for hours in the weather, maintaining distance from each other, some wearing homemade face-masks, to cast their ballots during a PANDEMIC. Decisions/ votes by Wisconsin Republican leaders (Vos-Fitzgerald), Wisconsin Republican State Justices, Republican U.S. Justices put Wisconsinites lives in jeopardy…hoping for lower voter turnout which favors Republicans. When we see Vos and Fitzgerald wearing their lapel flag pins…don’t be fooled. They aren’t true patriots…Tuesday’s Milwaukee voters are.
This is the reason that Fat man and Robin preached that “it was safe” to go to the polls: “Once White Conservatives in Wisconsin Learned That the Coronavirus Was Mainly Impacting Black Communities, They Had No Problem Forcing the Elections”
https://tinyurl.com/s3o8g4b