Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick criticized President Biden as a “hypocrite” for saying that the Lone Star State’s lifting of the COVID-19 mask was “Neanderthal thinking,” according to a report.
The president attacked the Republican governors of Texas and Mississippi on Wednesday for suspending security measures amid the pandemic, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned of new variants.
“The last thing, the last thing you need is for the Neanderthal to think that while everything is fine, take off your mask,” Biden told reporters.
The Republican deputy governor attacked Biden on Thursday in “The Faulkner Focus”.
“How dare he attack Texas because of our policies when he is allowing the border to be invaded by people who enter here by the hundreds, by the thousands and with a positive test and coming by bus to his state, wherever you live in the States States of America, ”said Patrick, according to Fox News.
“What a hypocrite,” he added.
More than 100 illegal immigrants who have been released by the Texas Border Patrol since January have tested positive for the disease.
Felipe Romero, a spokesman for the border city of Brownsville, told Fox News this week that he is aware of cases where people can continue to travel despite the test being positive and being quarantined – despite federal guidance to isolate.
“What I would call ‘Neanderthal thinking’ would be Gov. [Gavin] Newsom in California telling its people not to leave their cave for a year, ”said Patrick.
“I would call ‘Neanderthal thinking’ a Democratic governor. [Andrew] Cuomo, from New York, sent patients with COVID to nursing homes, where he covered 12,000 people dying, ”said Patrick.
“I would call it ‘Neanderthal thinking’ of allowing people to cross the border illegally with COVID,” he said, adding that Biden “did not look at the facts” and noting that 15 other states do not have a mask mandate.
He also added that people were still encouraged to distance themselves socially.
“We just joined that group,” he said. “We are not telling people not to wear masks. We are just removing a mandate. “
A Biden representative did not immediately respond to Fox News’s request for comment.
In an interview with Fox and Friends on Thursday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott dealt a blow to Biden after more than 100 illegal immigrants tested positive for coronavirus were released by the Border Patrol in the State of Estrela. Lonely.
“First of all, it’s obviously not the kind of thing the president should say,” said Abbott on the program. “But, secondly, he kind of said that on the worst day he could have, because on the same day he said that in Texas, the Biden government was releasing illegal immigrants into our communities that had COVID.”
He added: “The Biden government was exposing the Texans to COVID. This is a Neanderthal approach to dealing with the COVID situation. “
Abbott blamed “the Biden government’s lack of restraint in testing and quarantining people who cross the border illegally.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday defended Biden’s attack on “Neanderthal thinking” by governors ending the mandates of COVID-19 masks.
Psaki said Biden’s language was designed to describe the actions of Abbott and Republican Governor Tate Reeves of Mississippi, rather than demeaning them personally as mentally primitive.
“The behavior of a Neanderthal, just to be clear, the behavior of,” she emphasized at her daily press conference.
“What everyone saw yesterday was a reflection of their frustration and exasperation.”