Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) on Monday attempted to persuade the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to extend its eviction moratorium but inadvertently revealed how Democrats view their power.
Toward the beginning of the pandemic, the CDC enacted a moratorium on evictions, meaning landlords couldn’t evict tenants who didn’t pay their rent. Now that moratorium has expired, and Democrats waited until the last minute to try to extend it. Waters on Monday tweeted that the CDC should just extend the moratorium without Congress or any legal authority because there’s no one to stop them.
“I don’t buy that the CDC can’t extend the eviction moratorium – something it has already done in the past! Who is going to stop them? Who is going to penalize them? There is no official ruling saying that they cannot extend this moratorium. C’mon CDC – have a heart! Just do it!” Waters tweeted.
Of course, the CDC never had the authority to institute such a moratorium, as the Supreme Court decided in its “official ruling” saying that congress was where the power lay to extend the moratorium. As The Daily Wire reported on Monday, however, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) waited until the last minute to try to hold a vote on extending the moratorium. The Supreme Court’s decision was issued in June, finding the CDC’s moratorium was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court at that time gave Congress until July 31 to extend the moratorium through legislation. Pelosi did nothing until last week, just before the moratorium was set to expire.
She claimed she only learned of the deadline on Friday and was unable to get even enough Democrats to vote to extend the moratorium before it expired. Numerous Democrats, led by members of the Squad, camped out on the steps of the U.S. Capitol building to protest the end of the moratorium they did nothing about previously.
After Pelosi failed to get enough votes to extend the moratorium, she took to Twitter to falsely claim the CDC had “the power to extend the eviction moratorium.”
“As they double down on masks, why wouldn’t they extend the moratorium in light of delta variant?” Pelosi tweeted.
“It is a moral imperative to keep people from being put out in the street which also contributes to the public health emergency. The virus is still a threat, the moratorium must be extended and the funds Congress allocated to assist renters and landlords must be spent,” she added.
The White House took exception to Pelosi’s statements, responding through White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki by saying the CDC could not lawfully extend the moratorium. Psaki added that CDC officials “have been unable to find legal authority for a new, targeted eviction moratorium.”
“Our team is redoubling efforts to identify all available legal authorities to provide necessary protections,” Psaki added. “In the meantime, the President will continue to do everything in his power to help renters from eviction.”
Waters’ tweet was an attempt to prod the CDC to extend the moratorium even without the legal authority to do so. Her observation that no one would stop them or penalize them shows how Democrats view their own power in Washington. She’s correct that no one would do anything to hold the CDC accountable for violating the Constitution. The same could be said for many Democrat-controlled institutions, which is a huge problem.