State Rep. Anna Eskamani, a left-wing radical from Orlando, has little nice to say about Republicans or their ideas.
But one must wonder why she did something she so routinely accuses Gov. Ron DeSantis and her other political rivals of doing: Putting young people’s lives at risk.
On Sunday night, Eskamaniu tweeted a photo of herself celebrating her interns. There, outside the Lazy Moon Pizza parlor, was the rep and the beaming faces of 15 people who she shepherded through learning the machinations of government.
“Tonight we hosted our Intern Appreciation Dinner!” the tweet said. “What an amazing group of young people. We are inspired by each one of you. Your personal stories, your compassion for others, endless empathy & incredible commitment to service. We can’t wait to keep watching you all shine.”
There was only one question: Where were the masks?
Just like at Barack Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard birthday bash earlier this month, and at a ritzy Napa Valley soiree attended by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the weekend, none of the people featured in the photo, despite standing literally shoulder to shoulder, wore a mask. Including Eskamani.
When the criticism arrived, Eskamani tried to backpedal, “We are all fully vaccinated and wore our masks when indoors, and took them off when outside for the photo. In general, being with fully vaccinated people outside is safe (being in close contact w/potentially unvaccinated ppl is different).”
“This [is] a group of very responsible young people and we’ve been together in the same office for the entire summer and we went outside for the photo to be safe, too. We take nothing for granted & are very lucky to have each other,” she added.
On Twitter, Matt Whitlock, a former spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch, did the yeoman’s work of exposing the all too easy to find hypocrisy.
He pointed out that literally just that same morning Eskamani had retweeted a tweet by a Florida doctor who was complaining about COVID overload at her hospital.
“Horrifying, and a reminder of why we need to #GetVaccinated, #MaskUp, and take care of one another,” Eskamani tweeted.
Whitlock then quickly posted four of Eskamani’s tweets within the past week in which she berated Gov. DeSantis for not promoting masks but for advocating monoclonal antibody treatments, while also praising school districts that scoffed at DeSantis and the state law banning mask mandates.
“Awkward to attack DeSantis for thinking parents should be able to decide if their kids need to wear masks while you’re out posting pictures hanging out with a bunch of kids without masks. Yikes,” Whitlock tweeted at Eskamani on Sunday night.
He followed up on Monday after Eskamani tried to again defuse the criticism.
“Pretty much the epitome of my twitter notifications right now,” she tweeted with a launching emoji amid the criticism. “But in all seriousness, check out CDC Guidelines on masks … And for schools …. #GetVaccinated y’all!! It keeps us ALL more safe!”
To which Whitlock answered, “If you’re going to make your entire online presence about trolling Ron DeSantis for not using the power of government to force kids to wear masks, you’re going to have a tough time saying ‘but MY friends are generally safe without masks leave us alone.'”
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