Face coverings and leadership - What's Your Point?

HOUSTON - Troubling and tragic news this week regarding two high profile GOP politicians. First the death of former presidential candidate Herman Cain after a month-long fight with COVID-19.
It's been widely reported that Cain was diagnosed with the coronavirus two weeks after attending the Trump rally in Tulsa without wearing a mask.
Texas Congressman Louis Gohmert has tested positive for the virus after weeks of walking the halls of Congress and attending hearings without a face covering, most recently with Attorney General William Barr.

This week's panel; Wayne Dolcefino, media consultant, Charles Blain, Urban Reform, Carmen Roe, Houston attorney, FOX 26 legal analyst, Tomaro Bell, Houston Super Neighborhood leader, Raj Salhotra, Momentum Education,  join host Greg Groogan to talk about leadership and face-coverings.

ATLANTA (AP)  July 30, 2020   Herman Cain, former Republican presidential candidate and former CEO of a major pizza chain who went on to become an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump, died Thursday of complications from the coronavirus. He was 74.

Dan Calabrese, who authored a post on Cain’s website announcing the death, told The Associated Press that Cain died at an Atlanta hospital early Thursday morning. Cain had been ill with the virus for several weeks. It’s not clear when or where he was infected, but he was hospitalized less than two weeks after attending Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20. Cain had been co-chair of Black Voices for Trump.

A photo taken at the rally showed Cain, without a mask, sitting close to other people who also were not wearing any face coverings. A statement on his Twitter account said he tested positive for COVID on June 29 and was hospitalized on July 1 because his symptoms were serious.

“We knew when he was first hospitalized with COVID-19 that this was going to be a rough fight,” Calabrese wrote in the website post Thursday.            

Trump offered his condolences in a tweet on Thursday in which he said he had also spoken by telephone to Cain’s family.

He later started his news conference at the White House with a mention of Cain’s death. “He was a very special person ... and unfortunately he passed away from a thing called the China virus,” Trump said, using the moniker he often ascribes to the new coronavirus, which was first detected in China.

He added, “We send out prayers to Herman’s great wife, Gloria ... And I have to say, America grieves for all of the 150,000 Americans that had their lives taken by this horrible, invisible enemy.”

Cain, who had hoped to become the first Black politician to win the GOP nomination, was initially considered a long-shot candidate. His bid was propelled forward in September 2011 when he won a straw poll vote in Florida, instantly becoming an alternative candidate for Republican voters concerned that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was not conservative enough.

But Cain struggled to respond to accusations that he had sexually harassed several women and — in a video that went viral on the internet — rambled uncomfortably when asked whether he supported or opposed President Barack Obama’s policies in Libya. There were also gaffes on abortion and torture that led Cain’s critics to question whether he was ready for the White House.

Just as Cain started surging in the polls, Politico reported that the National Restaurant Association paid settlements to two former employees who claimed Cain sexually harassed them while he was CEO and president of the lobbying group from 1996 to 1999. Another woman, Sharon Bialek, said that Cain, an acquaintance, groped her in a car in July 1997 after they’d had dinner in Washington. Bialek, who was then unemployed, said she had contacted Cain seeking job advice.

Cain said he could not remember Bialek and denied sexually harassing anyone, but polls conducted in the weeks afterward showed his popularity slipping considerably.

Cain honed his speaking skills in the corporate world, then hosted a radio talk show in Atlanta that introduced his political views and up-by-the-bootstraps life story to many tea party supporters and other conservatives.

He first ventured into national politics in 1994 when he publicly challenged President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, on his proposal to force employers to buy health insurance for their employees. “For many, many businesses like mine, the cost of your plan is simply a cost that will cause us to eliminate jobs,” Cain told Clinton. “What will I tell those people whose jobs I will have to eliminate?”

Afterward, the restaurant industry used Cain as a spokesman as it campaigned against Clinton’s plan, which ultimately failed.

Cain served as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from 1992 to 1996. After moving back to his native Georgia, he ran for U.S. Senate as a Republican in 2004. He lost to Rep. Johnny Isakson in the primary.

Less than two years later, Cain was diagnosed with late-stage cancer in his colon that had spread to his liver. He recovered and later credited God with persuading him to run for president after Obama, a Democrat, took office in early 2009.

“That’s when I prayed and prayed and prayed,” Cain told an audience of young Republicans in Atlanta. “And when I finally realized that it was God saying that this is what I needed to do, I was like Moses. ‘You’ve got the wrong man, Lord. Are you sure?’”

Cain projected a self-confident image that at times bordered on arrogance. He referred to himself in the third person, and his motivational speaking company was named T.H.E. New Voice Inc. The acronym stood for The Hermanator Experience.

Cain’s run for the presidency was unlikely considering his origins. Born in the segregated South, his father worked three jobs as a janitor, barber, and chauffeur, while his mother was a servant. He graduated from Morehouse College, a historically Black college for men in Atlanta, received a master’s degree from Purdue University, and worked as a civilian mathematician in the U.S. Navy.

While it was a good job, Cain said his ambitions were in the corporate world. He wanted to be president of “something ... somewhere,” he later wrote.

He worked first for Coca-Cola, became a vice president with Pillsbury, then was appointed to run its struggling Burger King unit in the Philadelphia area. His success prompted Pillsbury officials to ask Cain to take over its floundering Godfather’s Pizza chain. Cain said he returned the franchise to profitability.

The centerpiece of Cain’s presidential campaign was his 9-9-9 plan, which would have replaced the current tax code with a 9% tax on personal and corporate income and a 9% national sales tax. Cain said the plan’s simplicity would stimulate the economy by giving investors certainty.

“If 10% is good enough for God, 9% ought to be good enough for the federal government,” he told crowds.

Numerous Republican politicians, party activists, and conservative political commentators mourned Cain’s death on social media Thursday.

Romney tweeted, “Saddened that Herman Cain—a formidable champion of business, politics and policy—has lost his battle with COVID. St. Peter will soon hear ‘999!’ Keep up the fight, my friend.”

Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tweeted that Cain was “a fierce advocate for conservative principles across the board,” while Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue of Georgia, referring to Cain as one of his closest friends, remarked that “Herman ... lived the American dream and aspired to share his success with others.”

Cain is survived by his wife, Gloria Etchison, their children and grandchildren.

WASHINGTON (AP)  July 29, 2020  Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Capitol officials issued broad new mask requirements Wednesday after a Republican member of Congress tested positive for the coronavirus. The member, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, often shunned wearing masks and was known to vote without one.

Pelosi announced Wednesday evening that all members will be required to wear a mask when voting on the House floor and that one will be provided if anyone forgets. Several hours later, the House sergeant-at-arms and the Capitol’s top physician issued an order requiring masks inside House office buildings, with few exceptions. That mandate goes into effect at 8 a.m. Thursday.

Pelosi said failure to wear a mask on the House floor is a “serious breach of decorum” for which members could be removed from the chamber. Members will be able to temporarily remove them while speaking, however. In the House office buildings, people can remove them to eat, drink and give interviews, among a few other specific situations.

“It’s a sign of respect for the health, safety, and well-being of others present in the chamber and in surrounding areas,” Pelosi said.

Gohmert tested positive just before he was scheduled to travel to his home state with President Donald Trump. He was forced to cancel his plans and was immediately criticized by colleagues for not always wearing a mask. “A selfish act,” one lawmaker said.

The 66-year-old Gohmert, one of the House’s most conservative and outspoken members, told a Texas news station that he tested positive before boarding Air Force One and planned to self-quarantine. He is at least the 10th member of Congress known to have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Gohmert’s positive test raised further questions about the lack of mask and testing requirements in the Capitol as members frequently fly back-and-forth from their hometowns and gather for votes, hearings, and news conferences.

Several GOP senators said they were pushing for more regular testing in the Capitol, as there is currently no testing program or requirements.

“I think particularly for members of Congress who are going back-and-forth, they represent sort of the perfect petri dish for how you spread a disease,” said GOP Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, chair of the Senate Rules Committee. “You send 535 people out to 535 different locations, on about 1,000 different airplanes, and bring them back and see what happens.”

An eight-term lawmaker, Gohmert participated in the House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday where Attorney General William Barr testified. Before the hearing, Gohmert was seen approaching the meeting room behind Barr, and neither man was wearing a mask.

Gohmert also voted on the House floor Tuesday and attended a House Natural Resources Committee hearing, where a staff member sat close behind him on the dais as he talked without a mask. The chair of that committee, Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, said he would self-quarantine.

“In the meantime, my work schedule and the lives of my employees are disrupted,” Grijalva said. “This stems from a selfish act by Mr. Gohmert, who is just one member of Congress.”

When Gohmert flew to Washington on Sunday, he sat next to Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, who also went into quarantine after learning of her colleague’s test results. A third lawmaker, Republican Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, said he was advised to quarantine after having dinner with Gohmert on Monday.

Mask wearing had been strongly encouraged but not enforced for lawmakers in the Capitol, while other workers and law enforcement officers were required to wear masks. Committees had rules requiring face coverings in hearing rooms, but until now, they hadn’t been required in hallways or personal offices.

In a letter late Wednesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., wrote to the House Office of Employee Assistance and, citing Gohmert’s positive test, asked if officials there had “sufficient resources to meet the greater demand for staff counseling created by these incidents.” He asked that the office take additional measures to publicize its services.

Most senators had worn masks, but a few had refused, including Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a doctor who says it’s unnecessary because he previously tested positive for the virus. There is no proven science saying that a person cannot get the virus again.

In a television interview, Gohmert said he was given a rapid test by the White House that came back positive and then took a more thorough test to rule out a false positive. That test came back positive, too, so “apparently I have it,” Gohmert told KLTV’s East Texas Now.

Gohmert also suggested that he might have contracted the virus by wearing a mask. Medical experts say masks are one of the best ways to prevent transmission of the virus, which is thought to mainly spread through people who are in close contact.

Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec said Barr would be tested Wednesday. Gohmert did not wear a mask while questioning Barr, but the seats in the hearing room are spaced many feet apart, and it is common practice to remove masks during questioning.

During the Barr hearing, the committee chair, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., chastised some of Gohmert’s GOP colleagues for not wearing masks when they weren’t speaking. Nadler did not call out Gohmert by name.

Nadler tweeted Wednesday: “When individuals refuse to take the necessary precautions it puts everyone at risk. I’ve regularly instructed all members to wear their masks and hope this is a lesson by all my colleagues.”

Multiple GOP senators said Wednesday they were pushing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to allow expanded testing. McConnell and Pelosi jointly rejected Trump’s offer for rapid testing for lawmakers in May, saying they wanted instead to direct resources to front-line workers.

Blunt said he believes that lawmakers should be tested every time they travel and that staff and others should be tested occasionally. He said McConnell and the Capitol physician would have to be on board for that to happen, and he doesn’t know why it hasn’t.