Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, reacted to the White House’s appointing Ron Klain as the administration’s point man on the Ebola epidemic by saying that “we don’t need another so-called ’czar’; we need presidential leadership.”
“This is a public health crisis, and the answer isn’t another White House political operative,” Mr. Cruz said. “The answer is a commander in chief who stands up and leads, banning flights from Ebola-afflicted nations and acting decisively to secure our southern border.”
Mr. Klain, who worked for vice presidents Joe Biden and Al Gore, is president of Case Holdings, which handles business interests for former AOL CEO Steve Case, and general counsel at Revolution LLC, a tech-focused venture capital firm in Washington.
Mr. Cruz said the Ebola outbreak shouldn’t be treated as “yet another partisan battle by the White House.
“Rather, we should come together in bipartisan unity to take these common-sense steps to protect the American people,” he said. “And if the president will not act, if he will not lead, then Congress should immediately reconvene for an emergency session to enact a flight ban and take any other necessary measures to protect the health and safety of Americans.”
Many lawmakers on Capitol Hill say a ban travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the three most affected countries, makes sense, pointing to dozens of other countries, including other West African neighbors, who credit their own bans for halting or preventing the disease from spreading within their borders.
President Obama says he’s not philosophically opposed to the idea of a travel ban, but that the current judgment of people involved is that a flat-out ban is not the way to go.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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