So it�s official: The US president does not think opposition Republicans belong to an extinct human species. They just behave like them.
�Behavior of a Neanderthal,� Joe Biden�s press secretary, Jen Psaki said Thursday. �Just to be very clear: the behavior.�
Psaki was circling back on Biden�s earlier bashing of Republican governors in Texas and Mississippi who defied federal coronavirus experts and dropped mask-wearing mandates in their states.
Biden�s barbed comment Wednesday about �Neanderthal thinking� from the governors when the country is fighting to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic drew howls of outrage from some on the right.
�First we were �deplorables.� Then �chumps.� Then �spineless cowards,'� tweeted Representative Jim Jordan. �And now? We�re �neanderthals.� Not smart enough to make decisions for ourselves. This is what the Democrats think of us.�
A Republican senator, Marsha Blackburn, suggested on Fox Business that Neanderthals � an ancient species of human that became extinct about 40,000 years ago � are something like models of the can-do, small-government voters her party says it represents.
�Neanderthals are hunter-gatherers, they�re protectors of their family, they are resilient, they�re resourceful, they tend to their own. So, I think Joe Biden needs to rethink what he is saying,� she said.
Psaki addressed the backlash, saying Biden was reflecting �frustration and exasperation� with officials who refuse to follow the medical community�s consensus that mask-wearing is vital to stopping the coronavirus pandemic.
More than half a million Americans have died from Covid-19 in just over a year.