During his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called double-masking guidelines and mask ordinances at restaurants “dumb” and mocked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York).
Cruz complained that he has to wear a mask when he goes into restaurants but can take it off when he is seated at a table.
“Now they’re saying, everybody can get immunized, we can have herd immunity everywhere, and we’re going to wear masks for the next 300 years,” Cruz told the CPAC audience. “And by the way, not just one mask, two, three, four. You can’t have too many masks. How much virtue do you want to signal? This is just dumb.”
This month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared that wearing a “cloth mask over a medical procedure mask” could substantially reduce exposure to COVID-19.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it was “possible” that Americans would continue to wear masks into 2022, noting that much of the country might reach “a significant degree of normality” by the end of the year.
Cruz also mocked Ocasio-Cortez’s fears during the January 6 attack on the Capitol. “Bernie’s wearing mittens and AOC is telling us she was murdered,” Cruz said.
His comment came after Ocasio-Cortez said she “feared for her life” during the riot in an Instagram Live video.
“I did not know if I was on to make it to the end of that day alive, and not just in a general sense but also in a very, very specific sense,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
