'People are dying!' New Hampshire lawmaker who quit GOP slams his former party for embracing anti-vaxxers
On Wednesday's edition of CNN's "OutFront," William Marsh, the New Hampshire lawmaker who made waves this week by switching from Republican to Democratic, blasted his party for attacking vaccines — and compared the efforts of the state GOP to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who has sought to block all local health mandates as Florida sees some of the worst COVID-19 rates in the nation.
"I also want everyone to know, Representative, you're also a doctor," said anchor Erin Burnett. "So these objections to vaccine mandates obviously aren't new among Republicans, so what led you to do this now?"
"Erin, this started back in June," said Marsh. "We had a bill on the House floor that basically would have put in place DeSantis-style restrictions against what I consider reasonable precautions to control COVID. I spoke out against that on the House floor and I won, the New Hampshire House did not pass that measure."
"It's been an interesting summer," continued Marsh. "Yesterday they decided to hold a rally in support of DeSantis-style regulations prohibiting businesses from mandating vaccinations for employees, and prohibiting schools from mandating masks, and businesses from deciding their patrons need to be vaccinated and wear masks. We all know what's happened in states that have followed that path. People are getting sick. People are dying, including an increasingly high percentage of children."
Marsh then clarified that many Republicans had gone beyond traditional concerns about government overreach into private business into being full-blown anti-vaxxers.
"The issue is not the government putting policies in place," added Marsh. "The issue is whether we're going to prevent businesses from putting policies in place. And that's a bridge too far. I did see some point with the government not mandating certain things. I'm not going to fight that too much, although, in certain venues such as health care facilities, we do have an obligation to keep people safe, but that doesn't necessarily apply universally. To prohibit businesses from putting in place the policies they need to keep themselves in business, that's not what Republicans do."
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