Arizona Democrat Apologizes After Attending Hearing Virtually from Boat

Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) attended a House Transportation Committee hearing from a boat on Friday, which aroused backlash from his House colleagues.

Stanton voted and attended a House Transportation Committee hearing by teleconference on Friday, in which his appearance, floating on the water, drew shock from members of the House Transporation Committee.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), the chairman of the House Transporation Committee, allegedly said, “Is Stanton rowing a boat?”

Stanton apologized in a statement on Friday, saying:

There’s no getting around it: I messed up and I’m sorry for it. I participated in the five-hour markup mostly from inside and went outside to watch my kids (while listening in the entire time) shortly before the vote was called.

“At a time when most of his constituents in Phoenix are homebound in a state that has struggled mightily to bring down its COVID-19 infections, the visual of a congressman on a boat quickly burned through social media,” the Arizona Republic wrote.

Republicans swiftly condemned Stanton’s remote appearance before the committee.

“Exactly as I predicted,” Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) wrote. “The democrats enacted ‘proxy’ and ‘remote’ voting. These guys are literally phoning it in while half way across the country.  This is more like a zoom call now.”

“I guess I’m a sucker for actually showing up to work in Congress this week,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a member of the House Transporation Committee, wrote.

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has criticized Democrats’ move to allow remote hearings and proxy voting, which he contended could permit abuse and place too much power in the hands of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL) received backlash in May when attending a vote in person, citing health concerns amid the coronavirus outbreak, yet he flagged his plan to attend the NASA and SpaceX shuttle launch on the same day.