1. The claim by @repdonyoung, who is running against @AlyseGalvin, that he changed his position on the "beer virus" only "when it became serious" is nonsense. COVID was serious when Young called it the beer virus on March 13. But the oldest Congressman was seriously inattentive.
2. “This is blown out of proportion about how deadly this is. It’s deadly but it’s not nearly as deadly as the other viruses we have. But we respond, I’ll call it the hysteria concept,” Young said on March 13.
3. Young was wrong on every serious detail. The beer virus news coverage led to national ridicule. His young employees tried to clean up the mess, even inventing the idea that he wrote: “Knowledge is one of our best defenses against the spread of Coronavirus."
4. Thirteen days after his uninformed rant, his employees sat him down to deliver a hostage video and semi-apology: “Weeks ago I did not fully grasp the severity of this crisis. But clearly we are in the midst of an urgent public health emergency.”
5. On March 30, a reporter asked him if he had changed his mind about the "dumb" relief bill he opposed and his claim that this was all media hysteria. Young, who did not sound at all like the guy confessing his sins on the hostage video, retreated to his usual bluster.
6. “No, I didn’t say that, number one. Number two, I probably would have voted for it but that was the very beginning of this pandemic and there was a lot of questions about it then,” Young said on March 30.
7. “We can go back in history and decide what’s been said and what has not been said, but now we’re facing this I call a classic problem and we’re handling it very well, the governor and with the other two senators and the body as a whole,” he said March 30.
8. Six months have passed and Young is still making excuses for himself, claiming that no one knew how bad the situation was in March. This week he said, "Earlier on when I mentioned the beer virus and I've said this before—it was named corona—. . ."
9. "...I have lived through about four different pandemics in my life. And this one brought the attention. And I worry about people getting panicky and responding maybe not really to reality, but the fact is, they did not know.....
10."...I did not know how serious this would be. And it became serious. And I changed my position the fact it is serious. So we work on that. That's the thing about learning the process."
11. Young would have Alaskans believe that COVID-19 was not serious on March 13 and he changed his alleged position 13 days later when it became serious. He refuses to admit he was wrong. Nearly 200,000 people have died in the U.S.
l12. On March 13, as Young the Trump White House declared a national emergency. Nearly 200,000 people have died in the U.S. since then. He didn't change his allege position when it became serious. He changed his allllaskalAlaska
@threadreaderapp unroll
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.