The media have wrongly taken newly-elected Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., to task for suggesting Joe Biden's inauguration be delayed due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
A number of media outlets noted that the 20th Amendment of the Constitution mandates Jan. 20 as the date for the swearing in, suggesing that the former Auburn University football coach is ignorant of the Constitution.
Duke University professor Gabriel N. Rosenberg says Tuberville's comments were misrepresented, and that he was suggesting only that the inaugural celebration, not the formal swearing in, be postponed.
Rosenberg tweeted: "I listened to this again and this is just a straight up inaccurate transcript. What Tuberville actually said was 'we probably could have had a swearing in and done an inauguration a little later on after we'd got this virus behind us a little bit.'"
Critical liberal media outlets such as CBS and MSNBC quoted Tuberville as saying, "We probably could have had a swearing-in and inauguration later after we got this virus behind us a little bit. Again, we're talking about Washington, D.C." They interpreted the statement as a push from the new senator to delay the swearing in as well as the celebration.
The coronavirus pandemic has peaked as Biden is set to take office early next week and ceremonies and potentially demonstrations are anticipated.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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