Punchbowl News’s Heather Caygle falsely accused congressional Republicans of trying to prevent Democrat Jamie Raskin, who is undergoing chemotherapy, from wearing headgear on the House floor on Tuesday.

Rep. Raskin (D-MD) is going through chemo-immunotherapy to treat Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma, which he announced in December. On Tuesday, the congressman was recognized and given words of encouragement by his colleagues on the committee. The moment was mostly treated as a warm and bipartisan display. Mostly.

“Rep. Jamie Raskin gets a standing ovation in Dem Caucus after saying he will push back on Republican efforts to make him take off the cap he’s been wearing as he undergoes chemotherapy. ‘And I will make them take off their toupees,’ Raskin said to Dem cheers,” Punchbowl’s Caygle tweeted about the interaction.

Rep. Jamie Raskin gets a standing ovation in Dem Caucus after saying he will push back on Republican efforts to make him take off the cap he’s been wearing as he undergoes chemotherapy.

“And I will make them take off their toupees,” Raskin said to Dem cheers

— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) January 31, 2023

“Raskin, the top Dem on the Oversight Committee, announced in December he would undergo treatment for cancer,” continued Caygle before reporting that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told her that he didn’t “know anything about that” and would “look into it.”

And yet there is no evidence to suggest that such Republican efforts exist. As Raskin explained to Raw Story, “he was kidding around with that comment.”

In fact, Raskin celebrated the fact that his Congressional colleagues “have been uniformly supportive, Democrats and Republicans, you know, that means a lot to me,” as he said to HuffPost.

Republican Oversight Committee chair Rep. James Comer, when yielding to Raskin, took the moment Wednesday to say “we’re all rooting for you, we know that you’re going to win this battle,” before adding that Raskin was in the entire committee’s “thoughts and prayers.”

“It’s good to see you here today,” said Comer.

After announcing his diagnosis, Raskin received well wishes from even the furthest reaches of the Republican Caucus, including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had previously asked the Maryland Democrat why he didn’t care about the American people and whom Raskin has called a “cheerleader for the [January 6] insurrection.”

“We disagree often, but I’ll be praying for Jamie Raskin. Cancer is a terrible disease. I watched my father die from it, and it broke my heart,” tweeted Greene last month. “It’s good Rep Raskin has hope and his form of cancer is curable with the treatment he will be starting.”

We disagree often, but I’ll be praying for Jamie Raskin. Cancer is a terrible disease. I watched my father die from it, and it broke my heart.
It’s good Rep Raskin has hope and his form of cancer is curable with the treatment he will be starting. https://t.co/HHQaBQjHRD

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) December 29, 2022

“Thank you, Marjorie, for this touching message, which my youngest daughter showed me. I’m grateful for your concern and very sorry to learn that you lost your father to cancer. Wishing you happy holidays with loved ones,” replied Raskin.

Caygle has yet to correct herself more than 24 hours after propagating the rumor that Republicans had made a cruel target of Raskin’s headwear, despite the multiple community context notes now affixed to her original tweet, which has been retweeted over 9,500 times, liked by nearly 58,000 and viewed by 4.3 million.

 

The post Reporter Falsely Accuses Republicans of Heartlessly Trying to Force Cancer Patient Rep. Jamie Raskin to Take Off Hat first appeared on Mediaite.

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