Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who is working on legislation to exempt essential workers from being subject to vaccine mandates, told Newsmax that getting the shots should be a personal choice made with doctors and family members, and that her bill would protect them from President Joe Biden, "who is obviously trying to get them fired from their jobs."
"I've been visiting with a lot of our first responders in healthcare and law enforcement, airline employees, teachers, and they're very concerned about this federal mandate," the Tennessee Republican said on Thursday's "National Report."
"They rightfully see it as federal overreach and something that not only invades their privacy but it destroys their freedoms and their rights."
The new legislation would allow people who worked during the pandemic and declared essential workers exempt from Biden's mandate, which is "the right thing to do," Blackburn said.
"There are so many people who because of healthcare reasons, religious reasons cannot take the vaccine," she said. "Their physicians have recommended that they not get the vaccine. This is something that should be a person's choice."
She added that nobody would have believed it during the 2020 campaign if Biden had said he was planning to require vaccines.
"They would have said hey, wait a minute," Blackburn said. "Now that is just a bridge too far. You're pushing back on my freedoms, my choice. It is none of your business if I choose to get a COVID shot, a flu shot, or any others. He did at one point even say he wasn't going to mandate it. And then, of course, we've seen him go back on the word there and his plan."
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