Just weeks after attacking his Republican opponent on Ebola, Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., yesterday struggled to answer questions from a reporter about President Obama’s response to the international crisis.
Pryor, who is locked in a close race that could determine control of the U.S. Senate, criticized Republican Rep. Tom Cotton on emergency preparedness to a pandemic like Ebola in an ad that aired in August.
Yesterday, at a campaign rally in Conway, Ark., MSNBC reporter Kasie Hunt asked Pryor about Obama’s response to Ebola crisis.
After stammering for a moment, Pryor told Hunt it was hard to know the administration’s response because he hasn’t heard the “latest briefing” on it.
“My impression is that we have people over there both from the CDC and other medical-type people, and even some engineers to try to build, you know, medical facilities,” the Democrat incumbent said. “That’s what they need over there. They need the medical infrastructure.”
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In addition to deploying more than 100 officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to West African countries to provide ground expertise, Obama also ordered more than 3,000 troops to help combat Ebola.
“I’ve given better answers to tougher questions, but the fact is we’ve got to do everything possible to prevent an outbreak here at home,” Pryor said in a statement. “That starts with containing the disease’s spread in Western Africa, and our military and airport screenings are the right thing to do. What’s not right, however, is to vote against adequate funding for the Center for Disease Control, which Congressman Cotton has done.”
Cotton came under fire from the Democrat in late August, when Pryor released an ad, “Emergency Response,” that hit the Republican congressman for voting against legislation “preparing America for pandemics like Ebola” and cutting “billions” from the country’s medical disaster and emergency programs.
The ad was named by Time as one of the most “dishonest political ads of 2014.” Last year, Cotton voted against an early version of a bill for medical disaster and emergency preparedness programs, but voted for the final version of the legislation, which was signed by Obama.
“Tom Cotton has taken a serious, measured response to the Ebola crisis, joining Arkansas’s other three congressmen last week in sending a letter to President Obama that calls for commonsense measures to step up our country’s preparedness against the Ebola outbreak,” David Ray, spokesman for Cotton’s Senate campaign, said in a statement today. “Serious times demand serious leaders, and that’s not what Arkansans are getting from Sen. Pryor.”
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The first cases of Ebola were reported in March. In August, the United Nations classified the spread of the disease as an “international public health emergency,” and as of Sept. 30, more than 3,400 people in four West African countries—Liberia, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone—died from the disease.
The CDC confirmed the first case of Ebola in the United States late last month. Thomas Eric Duncan arrived in Dallas on Sept. 20 and began to feel ill several days later. Last week, a blood test confirmed Duncan had Ebola.
The arrival of the disease in the United States sounded alarms throughout the nation, but CDC Director Tom Frieden said Sunday he’s confident the United States wouldn’t suffer an outbreak.
Cotton and Pryor are embroiled in a tight race for the U.S. Senate. According to the latest poll from CBS News and The New York Times, Cotton leads Pryor 45 to 41.
