Today, Republican Whip and Ranking Member of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Steve Scalise (R-La.) had the opportunity to demand answers from Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Rochelle Walensky - the Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about the apparent double standard at the border as it pertains to the Coronavirus.
It came as no surprise when Rep. Scalise laid out the facts he had gathered on his own trip to the southern border, that the Biden administration was failing to follow the very Covid-19 rules and guidelines they impose on American citizens when it came to illegal aliens who are being held at the border and subsequently released around the country.
After a heated back and forth, Rep. Scalise’s determination paid off in the face of an information blackout about the true size and scope of the current border crisis; Dr. Fauci admitted under oath that the Biden Administration is not following its own social distancing guidelines at detention facilities. Similarly, Dr. Walensky admitted under oath that the administration is also failing to follow its recommended Covid-19 testing procedures before transporting illegal aliens into the country.
Rep. Scalise began by recalling his recent trip to the southern border where he visited a temporary processing center in McAllen, Texas, and the Donna Detention Facility. He held up pictures he and his colleagues had taken on the trip showing some of the cells holding aliens at the facilities.
He turned his questioning to Dr. Walensky and reminded her that “Secretary Mayorkas just recently testified that he admitted that apprehended migrants were released before getting a COVID test who came from Mexico, from El Salvador, and getting on an airplane.” Scalise then asked the Director of the CDC if this constituted a “violation of CDC guidance?”
Without actually answering the Congressman’s question Dr. Walensky responded, “This is guidance. It's not law. But this is the recommendation to enter the United States.” The Congressman quickly refuted the nonanswer by reminding the Director of what exactly her department’s regulations state:
No, it doesn't say recommendation. This says, ‘all are required.’ That's not a recommendation, Dr. Walensky. That's a requirement by the federal government for American citizens. Is there an exemption [to this guidance] for people who come here illegally? That’s a yes or no question. Should everybody comply or just American citizens?
Dr. Walensky did not give Rep. Scalise his “yes or no” answer, but he asked her to please inform the President that his current operations at the southern border are in violation of CDC guidance, lamenting his and his colleagues’ own unanswered requests for meetings with the President. Rep. Scalise then turns to Dr. Fauci, holding up a picture of cramped holding cells at a Texas detention facility. “Dr. Fauci, does this look like social distancing to you that you require when you talk about six feet?” he asks.
“No” replies Dr. Fauci.
The Congressman again, pointedly responds:
So, in these cells, as you just said, they're violating the very guidance that you tell Americans to follow. A restaurant in the United States would be shut down today if [it] were being run like this. Yet the federal government — the Biden Administration — is running this facility. You can see all of these young children who are next to each other six inches apart, many without masks, by the way, does that follow your guidance that you've issued?
“No” replies Dr. Fauci.
Rep. Scalise concludes by perfectly summarizing the problem so many are beginning to see at this stage in the ongoing border crisis, he states:
[The Administration is] violating every guidance that Americans are required to follow. Again, you look at the CDC guidance on Mexico — it's off the charts saying how dangerous it is. If you're an American citizen with the vaccination, you have to, not should, have to get a COVID test saying you're negative to come back home to America. Yet, if you're coming here illegally, the Homeland Security Secretary admitted in a hearing just the other day that they're not testing people who come here illegally.
You can watch the full exchange here.
