image via @scottyamoore on Twitter
“As a candidate running for U.S. Congress, my days are filled with meetings.”
File this one under “We don’t know how to explain to you why you should care about other people.” That file sure is getting jam-packed, isn’t it?
Scotty Moore, the Republican nominee for Florida Congressional District 9 , was supposed to debate incumbent U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, with the debate being recorded today at WESH-2 studios. But Moore released a statement this morning saying that the debate was canceled by the station. According to Moore, the debate was canceled “for what they cited as my being unvaccinated.”
Moore says he “believe[s] in medical freedom” and goes on to say, “Woke Corporate Media is hard at work to silence our voices, but we will not allow it.”
Moore’s candidacy has already been a bumpy ride, after he was initially disqualified from the primary race due to a filing error. (He filed a local/state partisan oath instead of a federal one.) He was reinstated and beat his fellow Republicans, so he’ll face Soto in the general election Tuesday, Nov. 8, where Moore says he’ll focus on “the real issues: retaking the House, firing Nancy Pelosi, and saving America.”
WESH-2 station manager John Soapes returned our call to point us to a statement regarding the cancellation posted on the TV station’s website. While Moore’s statement says, “I offered to take a COVID-19 rapid test and even suggested we do the debate outside, but both compromises were dismissed,” WESH states, “The debate rules and vaccine requirements were defined and provided to Mr. Moore and his team well in advance. This is standard for all debate participants.”
The station’s statement continues: “Upon arrival for the scheduled debate this morning, we learned Mr. Moore and some members of his campaign did not meet the requirements. We immediately offered both campaigns to reschedule the debate to a virtual form. Mr. Soto was prepared to debate in-person today and has agreed to a virtual debate. We hope Mr. Moore will do the same.”
We have reached out to Rep. Soto for comment and will update this story if/when we hear back from him or his team. Rep. Soto’s campaign manager was able to get us a comment from the congressman:
Regarding Moore’s “medical freedom,” it is goddamned exhausting to say this over and over and over but, here we go: Your freedom to swing your fist ends where my nose begins. Your “medical freedom” to not take the COVID vaccine ends where my compromised immune system begins.
In other words, Moore is absolutely free to not partake in the vaccine, as he states. But he can’t force his choice on an entire TV studio full of people (most of whom are just there to do their jobs, not because they are voluntarily running for an elected office), any of whom may be caring for an elderly person or living with asthma or lucky enough to have gotten a kidney transplant or currently undergoing chemotherapy — he can’t force his choice on them, and then claim “woke media” is trying to silence him.
I don’t know how to explain to you why you should care about other people. If elected officials — all of them — can’t grasp not only that you should, but why you should, they shouldn’t be holding office.