Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) tore into President Joe Biden during an interview on Friday over the administration’s push to go door-to-door to get as many Americans vaccinated as possible, saying that the administration needed to back off.
Roy told RealClearPolitics that his “dad had polio,” and he grew up watching his dad “live a life ravaged” by that disease.
“I’m very pro-vaccine,” Roy said, adding that it was “a great blessing” that a vaccine ended polio and that he was “delighted” that the disease no longer impacted people.
“Likewise, I’m delighted there are millions of people who are able to avail themselves of a [coronavirus] vaccine that they believe, in their calculation, is good for them and their well-being,” he added. “That is great.”
“I’m just sick and God-darn tired of the left, and this government, dictating to me, frankly, anything at all,” Roy said. “Back the f- off. That’s my message to the White House.”
Roy predicted that the political left would “lose their ever-loving collective mind” and call him “an anti-vaxxer” when the truth is that he is “a big believer in freedom.”
The remarks come after President Joe Biden said this week, “We need to go to community-by-community, neighborhood-by-neighborhood and, often times, door-to-door, literally knocking on doors to get help to the remaining people protected from the virus.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the Biden administration would be sending “strike forces” into communities to get people vaccinated.
“We’re continuing to press to reach it and we will in the next couple of weeks for adults over the age of 18,” Psaki said. “But our work doesn’t stop there and we are going to continue to press to get 12 to 18 year-olds vaccinated, to continue to work with communities where there’s lower vaccination rates. That’s one of the reasons we initiated these strike forces to go into communities and work with them to determine what they need. To take a localized, specific approach that works with elected officials in communities.”
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, also slammed the Biden administration for the push. “Door-to-door vaccine checks on Americans are a blatant abuse of government authority and a pure power play by the Biden administration,” Biggs said. “The federal government has no right to track the private health information of Americans or to intimidate people into getting the vaccine.”
In a letter to the administration, Biggs said that the administration’s decision was “deeply disturbing and violates the privacy of Americans.”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) also called out the Biden administration on Twitter after Biden made his remarks.
“How about don’t knock on my door. You’re not my parents,” Crenshaw tweeted. “You’re the government. Make the vaccine available, and let people be free to choose. Why is that concept so hard for the left?”
How about don’t knock on my door.
You’re not my parents. You’re the government. Make the vaccine available, and let people be free to choose.
Why is that concept so hard for the left? https://t.co/Fkv3kzNh6S
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) July 6, 2021