Washington — In a story from the Associated Press, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stressed the importance of wearing a mask to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
"It’s time for us to take responsibility for our own health and for others,” McConnell said.
But at the same time, McConnell is denying state and local governments critical resources to protect frontline workers and first responders with personal protective equipment and pushing for corporate liability shields to ensure large corporations can force workers back to work and face no consequences if their workers get sick.
McConnell has said his Senate is “not interested in passing a bill that does not have liability protection… We have a redline on liability.” This would put millions of working Americans at risk and do nothing except protect McConnell’s corporate donors from the harm they cause to workers.
"McConnell urging Americans to wear masks while denying state and local governments the resources to provide their employees with masks is callous and hypocritical,” said Joshua Karp of Fix Our Senate. “If McConnell agrees with the experts that masks are critical to stopping the spread of the virus, why doesn’t he also agree with the experts that say state and local governments need resources to protect their employees and communities? This is just another instance of McConnell willing to fight for his corporate special interest donors but not working Americans.”