80-20 PAC joins many multi-ethnic organizations in calling for Kevin McCarthy to apologize for politically and racially motivated statements on the Covid-19 virus.
Today, leaders of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Congressional Native American Caucus, and Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) are calling on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Congressman Paul Gosar to apologize for calling the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) the “Chinese coronavirus,” or the “Wuhan Virus,” and are urging all Members of Congress to avoid stoking xenophobia that puts people at risk.
80-20 PAC agrees with the Sacramento Bee Editorial on March 10, 2020. “Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s coronavirus tweet echoes anti-Chinese racism. He must apologize”. “Anti-Chinese racism has a long and tragic history in California. Unfortunately, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield seemed to awaken the ghost of California’s anti-Asian prejudice this week by going out of his way to inject racist overtones into the already tense situation around the coronavirus.”
As every country on this earth is struggling to cope with the spreading of the COVID-19 virus – definitely not the pejorative “Chinese coronavirus” that McCarthy used – all US citizens of every color have the right to expect our congressional representatives to work overtime to protect us. Instead, McCarthy used racial profiling, derogatory and accusative terms in an attempt to blame an entire American ethnic group.
To learn more about this virus, APAPA would like to refer everyone to the CDC’s Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) website for information. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html
We consider McCarthy’s statement politically and racially motivated, and agrees with the Sacramento Bee that he must apologize!