Republican Official Who Railed Against Masks And Vaccines Dies From COVID

A Republican official from the state of Texas died this week from COVID, less than a week after a Facebook post he created declaring that vaccines don't work. He also had a history of posting anti-mask screeds and other attacks on vaccines over the past few months to his social media account. Stories like this are becoming far too common, and even if we differ on viewpoints, each death from COVID is an absolute tragedy. Hopefully, Republicans will take this as a warning to protect themselves and their loved ones. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins discusses this.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

A Republican county official from the state of Texas died from COVID this week just a few days after being hospitalized for pneumonia like symptoms. The commissioner man, by the name of Scott Apley, leaves behind a wife and a very young son who have also now tested positive for COVID. Though as of me sitting here talking about it, they have not been hospitalized for their symptoms. Now, Mr. Apley, as recently as this past Friday, which, by the way, was two days before he went to the hospital with COVID, Friday he was posting on Facebook, trashing the vaccine, telling people it doesn't work, you know, promoting these baseless conspiracy theories. And he has been doing this according to his social media record for the last few months. Trashing mask mandates.

Saying he wishes he could have participated in that mask burning that they had up North earlier this year. Anti-vaxxer, anti-masker, ranted and raved about both of them died on Wednesday of this week from COVID. And again, leaving behind a wife, leaving behind a very young son. This man was only 45 years old, and this was a death that didn't need to happen. At this point, nearly all the COVID deaths are deaths, deaths that don't need to happen. This isn't a, ha ha, another Republican, you know, reaped what they sowed here. This is not this at all. I'm willing to bet that there was nothing politically speaking that I would have ever agreed with Mr. Apley on probably nothing at all. But I would never have wanted this individual to die. The people all across the South right now that are dying at alarming rates from COVID. If I disagreed with them, if I personally hated them, I still would not have even wished for any of this to happen.

Every death that is happening right now, almost every death, shouldn't be happening. We have remedies, we have safeguards, we have protections. It's just that people are choosing not to take those things. And when I say remedies, I'm not talking about cures for the disease. I'm talking about putting on masks and socially distancing, trying to reduce the spread, avoiding crowded areas. This is a tragic story as is the story of any death. The, the, the, the man who died in his last text message he sent his wife was, I wish I got the vaccine. Was the last communication he had with his wife before he died. People have to stop screwing around with this. Vaccines, masks, these are not political statements. These are not partisan issues. The people who are turning them into partisan issues are the same people who depend on the votes of the people who are now dropping dead from it.

Thursday morning, Ted Cruz gets on Twitter as he usually does several times a week says, no mask mandates, no vaccine mandates, no closures, no locked. Dude, this man was in your state. This man was one of your voters. His wife's a widow. His son is going to grow up not remembering his father because he's too young to, to remember, never know him. He'll never know his dad. It's tragic and it shouldn't be happening. And the misinformation and the lies and the idiotic talking points from Republicans are sending their voters to early graves.