Joe Neguse Confronts House Republican Downplaying Covid With Old Quote From Him Saying It ‘Almost Killed Me’
Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) confronted his House colleague Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) with an article on Friday after Higgins said he considered Covid-19 to be far from dangerous.
During a House Rules Committee hearing, Neguse told Higgins, “I don’t necessarily disagree with your amendment, I think the committee will consider it, I just wonder, you’re not suggesting by virtue of submitting your amendment that Covid-19 isn’t dangerous or serious?”
Higgins responded, “That’s not the nature of my amendment. Are you questioning me about the details of my amendment or my opinions about Covid?”
After Neguse indicated the latter, Higgins said, “I believe that perhaps the gentleman’s definition of danger might be quite different from mine.”
He argued, “There’s levels of danger, good sir, and I would put a virus along the lines of the flu far down my list of priorities that I would consider as dangerous in my life. I have lived a life that I’ve stared danger in the eye, many, many times, and it never resembled Covid.”
Neguse then shot back:
Got it. Well, I’ll enter into the record — I appreciate your answer — this is an article from August 13 of 2021, from a newspaper titled The Advocate. I think it’s a Louisiana newspaper. The headline is, “Clay Higgins says COVID ‘almost killed me,’ remains opposed to mandates.” There’s a paragraph here, I’ll quote from it just so that we’re clear, “Regarding Covid-19, Higgins told the audience of several dozen residents at the event organized by the African-American Chamber of Commerce that the disease ‘almost killed me.'”
“There was a day there when I wasn’t sure y’all were going to have to tolerate me much longer,” he said. “My wife, my son and I got Covid about a month ago, the Delta variant, and I’ve never been knocked down that hard in my life. I’m fully recovered now. My suits fit better.”
Higgins replied:
That is an accurate assessment of— yes sir, I faced death’s door from the Delta variant of Covid and I remain very heavily inoculated having gained natural immunity and lived through that experience because I’m a healthy American and I remain unvaccinated by the experimental vaccine, which I’m sure you got, good luck with that. But yeah, I battled Covid a couple of times. One time, brought me to death’s door, but here I am.
Neguse concluded, “Well, I’m glad you’re healthy Mr. Higgins, and again, I was just asking a question. I think most people with that headline would come away with the impression that it’s dangerous if they say ‘it almost killed me,’ but anyway.”
Watch above via C-SPAN.
