Kahron Spearman
A new video shows a Republican congressman-elect of Virginia incredulously praising fanatics at a pro-Trump march in Washington, D.C. on Saturday for going maskless amid what he’s calling a “phony” coronavirus pandemic.
Bob Good, a Republican elected last month to represent the 5th Congressional District of Virginia, spoke to the crowd and said the coronavirus crisis was “a phony pandemic.”
“It’s a serious virus, but it’s a virus, it’s not a pandemic. It’s great to see your faces; you get it. You stand up against tyranny. Thank you for being here today; thank you for saying ‘no’ to the insanity,” said the unmasked Good.
However, Good’s comments come days after “Johns Hopkins recently marked the deadliest day yet of the pandemic and a total of 300,000 dead from COVID-19 across the country,” according to Newsweek, and despite the fact that the pandemic has killed over 300 people in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, according to the Washington Post.
The Trump-endorsed Good, stumping on conservative Christian values, defeated the Obama-endorsed Democratic candidate Cameron Webb by roughly 20,000 votes or 5 percent of the vote.
The next day, Good defended his “phony pandemic” comments in a reckless tweet, with a false equivalency that violently uncut the damage done by COVID.
“While every death is tragic, and we all know friends or family who have been affected, we accept some risk to live in a free society,” wrote Good. “We accept some risk with vehicle travel. We have nearly 40,000 auto fatalities every year in this country, but we don’t outlaw vehicle travel.”
Many made sure to pile onto his statement, including adding an understanding of the car crash data with context of the so-called “phony pandemic,” which involves a contagious, ever-mutating virus.
As Kyle Griffin replied: “Idiotic and dangerous. 300K deaths is not the same as 40K. We have federal and state laws to prevent more auto deaths, like seat belt laws and speed limits. And some people believe that sacrificing for a common good is more important than sacrificing 300K American lives.”