President Joe Biden should focus his COVID relief package on vaccine distribution rather than spending "hundreds of millions of dollars" on unrelated items if he wants to do more about stopping the spread of the disease, Sen. Josh Hawley said Thursday while rejecting the president's arguments against states that are dropping mandates and closures.
"What an uniter Joe Biden is," the Missouri Republican told Fox News' "Fox and Friends," while slamming the president for saying that red states that are loosening restrictions are engaging in "neanderthal thinking." "If you disagree with him you're a neanderthal. He's called people who disagree with him Nazis."
Hawley added that in his state, which the "D.C. crowd" calls "flyover country," such slams have happened for years, but he doesn't think there is anything wrong with following science but allowing people to make their own decisions.
"In Missouri, we have had a flexible approach," he said. "Our governor has done a good job, giving local counties the ability to make their own decisions."
Meanwhile, the president's COVID bill, which is now in the hands of the Senate, is "about their left-wing agenda," said Hawley.
"They called it the most progressive piece of domestic legislation in a generation," he said. "That's about right ... you look at their priorities, funding abortion providers and environmental justice, shoveling money to blue states, whose revenues are actually up, I mean it is just pure politics."
Hawley added that he has been supporting direct relief to families for months, including with former President Donald Trump's call for $2,000 relief checks, but the bill at hand scales back relief while loading up on special interest priorities.
Hawley also slammed the Biden administration over its immigration policy, taking particular aim at the stance that illegal entry into the United States isn't considered a crime.
"What's interesting when I asked (Attorney General nominee) Merrick Garland if he supported keeping illegal entry, he wouldn't answer me," said Hawley. "What you see is a pattern from the Biden administration which is to turn a blind eye to what's going on at the border. We already have another crisis building at the border. They know it by the way, and yet they're doing nothing."
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