One of the first heroes to emerge from the U.S. coronavirus outbreak is California Rep. Katie Porter. In early March, she and her white erase board went viral after she brilliantly took down the heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during a congressional hearing and made sure they vowed to pay for COVID-19 testing. Now, in a new interview with Samantha Bee, it looks like the freshman congresswoman will be raising more hell in the months to come.
"Are you exhausted from appearing in every Republican's nightmares?" Bee asked Porter during a video-streamed interview.
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Porter nonchalantly replied, "No, that's a very comfortable role for me." And, with a deadpan expression, she added, "If you're full of bullshit, I'm coming for ya. I just don't have time. I'm a single mom. The dinner's burning. I'm late to something. I have 4,000 emails. My hair is frizzy. I haven't shaved my legs in a week. No bullshit." The host of TBS's Full Frontal breathed a sigh of relief.
I did the math: a full battery of coronavirus testing costs at minimum $1,331.
— Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) March 12, 2020
I also did the legal research: the Administration has the authority to make testing free for every American TODAY.
I secured a commitment from a high-level Trump official that they’d actually do it. pic.twitter.com/RmolCtmNbG
While the CDC promised to pay for COVID-19 testing, there's still a lack of testing. Porter, who was previously in isolation after showing "cold-like symptoms" but tested negative for the coronavirus, updated the public by saying testing remains erratic.
"Here's the reality — the tests are scattered unevenly throughout the nation," Porter told Bee. "We're being told, 'You don't have a lot of cases, so you don't get a lot of equipment.' Well, we don't have a lot of cases, in part, because we don't have any testing."
Porter also said Congress has not figured out how to conduct itself remotely. Instead, she said, they are having a 200-person conference call, which for Porter is “a level of hell" she has never experienced.
"Congress has not figured out how to remote vote," Porter said. "We have not figured out how to have remote hearings. What Congress is doing right now is trying to learn how to mute and unmute their telephones."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chimed in on Twitter about Porter's appearance on Full Frontal, tweeting, "I've been telling y'all Katie Porter is likely the funniest member of Congress."
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I’ve been telling y’all Katie Porter is likely the funniest member of Congress 💀💀💀 https://t.co/AnsaUyI7TK
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 11, 2020
As for her own briefings on the state of the nation...to her kids? Porter filled Bee in on what she's been telling them and how she's been doing it.
"The information is accurate," Porter replied. "So that would put it really far from the Trump spectrum. But it's also a little harsher than Cuomo ‘cause they're not so chit-chatty. I'm not so warm and 'We're all in this together.' I'm more like, 'If you don't behave, you're gonna die.'"
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