WASHINGTON — The official transcript of President Joe Biden’s 20-minute speech about lowering the cost of health care last week in Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s district was more than 3,300 words. “Masks” was not one of them, even though the administration decided just weeks earlier to make high-quality masks available free at retailers and pharmacies around the country as another step to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since then, governors in blue states such as New Jersey and California announced they would lift mandates that people wear masks indoors. They said it was because the omicron spike in infections had come down markedly without hospitals being overwhelmed, but it also comes after Republican Glenn Youngkin successfully tapped into public fatigue with the pandemic to flip a blue state in the Virginia governor’s race three months ago. Youngkin has gone a step further, issuing an executive order that bars mask mandates in schools, and drawing some lawsuits over his authority before the state legislature passed a bill that would allow parents to opt their children out of schools’ mask requirements.
Meanwhile, Spanberger and other Democrats looking at tough reelection fights this November are under fire from Republican campaign operatives working to reproduce the Youngkin formula.
