Jerry Nadler ties monkeypox to COVID-19 in demanding Biden cancel student debt
'This is a weird one': Nadler student debt argument confuses Twitter
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Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., on Monday tied the monkeypox outbreak with the COVID-19 pandemic in arguing for the complete cancellation of U.S. student debt.
"With student loan repayments set to resume on August 31st and COVID-19 and Monkeypox cases on the rise, I once again request that @POTUS extends the payment pause and issues an executive order to cancel student debt," Nadler tweeted.
The tweet was met with widespread confusion about how monkeypox and student debt are related.
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Nadler’s office did not immediately respond to FOX Business' request for clarification.
Nadler appears to be equating the recent monkeypox outbreak with the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is why student loan repayments were paused in the first place under the Trump administration. The pause has been extended multiple times since, and is set to expire at the end of this month.
Chairman Jerry Nadler during a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill on July 14, 2022. (Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images)
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President Biden said he will make a decision on whether to issue a seventh extension on the pause in the coming weeks. According to multiple reports, he is considering eliminating some student debt for current borrowers; it is simply a matter of what dollar amount. There is also consideration of what income cap might be set, if any.
Sources familiar told the Wall Street Journal that the White House is mulling several options, including one confirmed by former press secretary Jen Psaki earlier this year, which involves forgiving $10,000 in student debt – a promise Biden made while campaigning for president – for anyone making less than $125,000 year.
President Biden and the White House COVID-19 Response Team participate in a virtual call with the National Governors Association from the White House campus on Dec. 27, 2021. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via / Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Biden announced Tuesday a team to coordinate and manage the White House’s monkeypox response efforts after California, Illinois and New York declared states of emergencies over the virus.
The two officials, Robert Fenton and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, are expected to coordinate and manage response efforts across the White House and all federal departments and agencies, as well as work with local, state, national and international stakeholders on "tracking and fighting the spread" of monkeypox.
The first case of monkeypox was confirmed in the United States on May 18. The symptoms are milder than smallpox symptoms — and monkeypox is rarely fatal.
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So far, the Biden administration has made more than 1.1 million doses of vaccine available to states and cities across the country to control the spread of the virus, and has expanded testing capacity from 6,000 tests per week to more than 80,000 tests per week.
Fox News' Brooke Singman and Breck Dumas contributed to this report.