Missouri AG Eric Schmitt Caught Flip Flopping On COVID Masks?!?

Tony Messenger is generally regarded as the best political columnist in Missouri.

His writing is far more engaging, clever and informative than his conservative counterparts. 

However . . . Like all of us at one time or another, he's forced to hop aboard a partisan bandwagon that he might not TOTALLY believe . . . If his rhetorical winks & nods at readers are any indication.

Accordingly . . .

In his latest column, Messenger points out Missouri AG COVID lawsuit double talk. To his credit, he correctly catches a contradiction . . . Or rather, he probably picked up a note some political consultant sent him. 

However . . .

At this point in the pandemic . . . Where even the mainstream media is embarrassed to tell the public about the 7-8 shots they MIGHT need to POSSIBLY avoid the plauge . . . Logical consistency is a luxury only afforded to white women on Instagram and colonoscopy technicians. 

To wit . . .

Here's a passage from the argument . . .

China’s “hoarding of (personal protective equipment) has adversely impaired the ability of health care providers throughout the world, including … in Missouri, from safely and effectively treating patients with the virus,” Schmitt’s brief reads.

One section of the brief argues: “China did not just stop selling masks — it also bought up much of the rest of the world’s supply.” Later, the brief claims that China sold “faulty masks” to Missouri and that left “countless medical providers, public officials, and private consumers vulnerable to the then-novel coronavirus.”

It goes on to say that the “repeated breaches” by China “have been injurious to — and have significantly interfered with — the lives, health, and safety of substantial numbers of Missouri residents, ruining lives and damaging the public order and economy of the State of Missouri.”

Then there’s this: China’s hoarding, the brief says, significantly “impeded the ability of the medical community and others to stop the spread of COVID-19.”

To help make his case, Schmitt linked to a New York Times article about China hoarding high-quality masks.

At the same time, Schmitt was conspiring with private attorneys to file lawsuits to stop school districts from requiring masks, arguing in those cases the opposite position. “Masks simply do not work to stop the spread of COVID-19,” Schmitt wrote in announcing some of those lawsuits earlier this year.

The flip-flopping might be easily written off by some as partisan primary politics. But even while campaigning, Schmitt is still the state’s attorney general, and some of the lawsuits with contradicting positions are still moving through the court system, and creating a certain amount of chaos in the public health world.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Messenger: Missouri's Eric Schmitt is now arguing that masks save lives. No, really.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has a mask problem. The Republican won his party's primary for U.S. Senate on Aug. 2, and he used his public office as a launching pad for the run. That included a campaign of filing dozens of lawsuits against school districts in St.