As Covid cases rise, some conservatives make surprising course correction on vaccine ahead of 2022 midterms
CNN
Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey's blunt message that unvaccinated people are letting the nation down capped a week where some Republicans finally seemed ready to abandon their dangerous coddling of Covid-19 vaccine skeptics and push Americans to get the shot.
"Folks are supposed to have common sense. But it's time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks," Ivey said in frustration Thursday as she spoke from the least vaccinated state in the nation. "It's the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down." Ivey's deliverance of hard truth followed a week of troubling Covid headlines, when some other Republican governors also redoubled their efforts to get their constituents vaccinated, including Missouri's Mike Parson, West Virginia's Jim Justice and Florida's Ron DeSantis. At the same time -- while speaking the gospel of "personal responsibility -- many GOP governors have resisted calls for mask mandates or future shutdowns. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana -- the No. 2 Republican in the House -- finally got his first Covid-19 vaccine shot after watching cases rise and talked about it publicly. Even Fox News host Sean Hannity seemed to encourage viewers to get vaccinated on his show this week, underscoring that he believes in the science of vaccination.
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The Senate on Wednesday voted down an effort led by Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders to block a series of planned US weapons sales to Israel.
Republicans on the House Ethics Committee fell in line behind GOP leaders and voted not to release the results of their investigation into Donald Trump’s attorney general pick, Matt Gaetz, despite growing calls from the Senate GOP to make the findings public ahead of his confirmation hearing.
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A former University of Virginia student pleaded guilty Wednesday to fatally shooting three football players and wounding two other students on the Charlottesville campus in 2022.
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The United States has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that called for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, on the grounds it would not have secured the release of hostages.
A Democratic election official in Pennsylvania offered an impassioned apology Wednesday for claiming “precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country” to justify counting about 600 faulty ballots in defiance of state Supreme Court rulings.
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